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Auto Ftp v2
by Glenn Delahoy
(C) Copyright 2003-2005
All rights reserved
Description
-----------
Auto Ftp v2 is the new big brother of the original Auto Ftp. It can perform
multiple ftp sessions simultaneously (fully multi-threaded). You can choose
between straight file copy or synchronisation in either direction (local to
remote or remote to local). Sessions can be started manually, timed, change
triggered or daisy chained. Multiple sessions can be started from the command
line making it a great batch file tool. Now you can have as many upload or
download ftp sessions as you like configured and ready to go with one click.
Rather than go into painful detail for the whole application, I'll assume you
can figure out most of it and I'll concentrate on the interesting bits.
Session Details
---------------
Paths These can be a directory or a wildcard file spec. If
it's a directory, end it with a backslash or forward
slash. Note this is slightly different to version 1.
Use the Test button on the connection page to test
the connection and paths are valid.
Copy Files From Local To Remote
Local Path can be a directory or file spec
Remote Path must be a directory
Copy Files From Remote To Local
Local Path must be a directory
Remote Path can be a directory or file spec
Make The Remote The Same As The Local Directory
Local Path must be a directory
Remote Path must be a directory
Make The Local The Same As The Remote Directory
Local Path must be a directory
Remote Path must be a directory
Countdown Select the number of seconds to countdown prior to
starting the session. When the countdown completes,
the session begins. When the session is complete, the
countdown starts again.
Detect Changes The Wait For countdown starts when a change is detected
in a file or directory in the local path. If a new
change is detected during the countdown, the countdown
is restarted. When the countdown completes, the
session begins. When the session is complete, the
detect begins again.
Chain From This will force the session to start immediately
another session completes. Select one of the other
sessions from the drop down list.
What Happens During The Session
You can choose between a straight file copy in either
direction or a file synchronisation in either
direction.
What Files Are Copied
You can choose between only the specified directory or
a full recursive operation, including all
sub-directories and files.
Note that it's possible to trigger a download session using the change trigger.
Why you would want to do this, I'm not sure but maybe you'll find a use for it.
Synchronisation
---------------
Synchronisation is performed if you choose either the "Make the remote the same
as the local" or "Make the local the same as the remote" options on the Details
page. Synchronisation can save a lot of time by comparing the files first and
transferring only the ones that have changed.
When you "Make the remote the same as the local", the files are compared by
checksum. Checksum detects changes even when the file size or time hasn't
changed. If the stored checksum is different to the checksum of the actual file,
the file is deemed to have changed and will be uploaded. If your remote site is
currently up to date, you can preload the local checksum store so the first sync
operation doesn't try to upload everything.
When you "Make the local the same as the remote", the files are compared by the
file's last modified time. As with all downloads, the local copy of the file is
updated with the modified time of the file on the remote. If the time for a
given file on the remote is different to the time for the same file on the
local, the file is deemed to have changed and will be downloaded. The file time
is accurate to within a minute.
New directories are created but old directories won't be deleted. This may
change in the future.
WARNING : Be very careful! If you have a web site on a remote host like myself,
you're going to have a bunch of folders and files that don't exist on your
local disk. For example, message forums, guestbook, download counters and
various maintenance files. Be very careful of synchronising the root directory
of your web site.
*** Backup before you start ***
Daisy Chaining Sessions
-----------------------
You can create a complex chain or tree of sessions using the chain option. When
a given session completes, you can trigger one or more sessions to start, you
can string a series of sessions together, one after the other or any
combination.
Command Line Options
--------------------
Start a Session
You can automatically start a session from the command line by quoting the
desired session name. For eg., autoftp "mywebsite" will start a session. Either
it will start straight away or the countdown or detection will commence.
Start a Session Immediately
You can force a countdown or detect session to start immediately by following it
with the /force option. For eg., autoftp "mywebsite" /force.
Start All Sessions
To start all countdown and detect sessions, specify the /start option anywhere
on the command line.
Exit When All Sessions Complete
Normally when a countdown or detect session completes, it returns to countdown
or detect mode. In batch files you want to run them once then exit. Do this
using the /exit option. When all specified sessions have completed, AutoFtp
will exit.
Start Minimised
If you don't need the application popping up on the screen during command line
operation, add the /hide option to the command line. AutoFtp will appear in
the system tray.
Logging
To create a log of the command line session, add the /log command line option.
Logging is done in memory during the session. When AutoFtp exits, it dumps the
log to autoftp.log in the application directory. The log is pretty much what
you see on the screen.
For eg:
autoftp "mywebsite" /force "backupftpsite" /force "mynewplace" /exit /hide
This example runs the first upload session immediately, the second download
session will also run immediately, the third session will run when it's
countdown completes or the detect kicks in. Only when the third session has
completed will AutoFtp exit. The application will run minimised.
Remember that daisy chaining is still active when running from the command line.
Skipping Files
--------------
In some cases you want to make exceptions to files that may be transferred or
overwritten. Make use of the Hidden and Read-Only attributes to control this.
* Hidden local files and directories are ignored when copying files to
the remote site
* Hidden or Read-Only local files and directories will not be overwritten by
files downloaded from the remote site
* Hidden or Read-Only local files will not be deleted during a synchronisation
* Files with the same name as a local directory will not be downloaded
NOTE: This is slightly different to version 1.
Test / Debug Mode
-----------------
Sometimes it's useful to find out what AutoFtp is going to do before it does it.
You particularly would like to know what files you're going to trash before they
get trashed. Selecting the Test option will cause AutoFtp to go through the
motions of whatever you have configured but it won't actually transfer anything.
Instead it will log intended transfers and show you the results.
You should do this for one session at a time, the logging isn't thread safe.
CAVEATS
-------
Here's some "gotchyas" I've found in my travels.
1. If AutoFtp seems to be uploading the same files over and over and you know
they haven't changed, it's possible the ftp listing may be getting truncated
by the server. For example, the server on my host caps the ftp listing at
2000 entries. I have a few directories that contain more than that so AutoFtp
never sees the additional files in the list and thinks they are new. You can
try a wildcard search to reduce the number of entries in the ftp list. Log
on to your ftp site with a regular ftp client and see if there are any
additional messages from the server when you list the directory.
2. AutoFtp has a hard time with mixed case file names. This is not a fault in
the program but one of the potential hazards when moving files between DOS
based systems (Windows) and Unix based systems. For example, if you did a
directory listing of *.jpg on a DOS system you'd get all files with jpg, Jpg,
JPG, jPg etc extensions. If you did the same on a Unix based system, you'd get
files with the jpg extension only. To avoid potential case confusion, it's
best to keep all your file names to lower case.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Release Notes
-------------
Version 2.00
------------
18 October 2005 Official public release
Version 2.01
------------
Change 1: Fixed a couple of small bugs including, hopefully, the abort bug.