RBrowser

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© Copyright Robert Vasvari, 1993-2003.

RELEASE NOTES for version 3.2.1

RBrowser 3.2.1 was built on MacosX 10.2 (Jaguar) and it will not run on earlier OSX versions. WARNING: This version has not been tested on any of the Panther Dev releases!

It is highly recommended to run System Update to get to 10.2.6 before you run this version.

Latest Changes:

3.2.1:

  1. MacBinary support has been enhanced in FTP. It is possible to create macbinary archives on the fly while uploading to FTP servers, even if the server is not macBinary aware. This is a good way to do backups.
  2. Improved support for hosts where the the user's parent directory is not readable.
  3. Bugfixes in the license module.

3.2:

  1. New protocol: FTP with SSL/TLS has been implemented.
  2. Multiple screens are now properly supported.
  3. Minor bugfixes.
More Revision History...

If you send feedback to us please do not forget to include the version of RBrowser you are running, the OS name and version.

FTP with SSL/TLS

RBrowser implements the only standard (sort of) that is out there, RFC 2228 to have SSL encrypted secure FTP access. This means that both control and data connections are secure, whether it is in passive mode or not. This protocol is not to be confused with SFTP which is part of the SSH2 protocol. RBrowser's implementation has been tested against all commercial FTP-SSL/TLS servers we could find, including WS-FTPD Pro. There are no options to be set other than the regular FTP options. Things to keep in mind with standard FTP versus SSL: encrypted data transfers are much slower! That is the price we pay for security. FTP with SSL is included in the RBrowser Basic license.

Direct Login:
This option makes for faster logins, especially for sites marked for Auto Login at launch. Be careful not to launch too many sites this way at startup, as this is very demanding on your computer's resource while a new Site is initializing.

Su to root (or another user):
The best way to set this up is to use the Site Preferences panel just before logging in. Go to the advanced tab and fill in the username/password of the user you want to change to after login. RBrowser will use the "su" command to change all shells on the remote box to the user you specified. You can also do this on a live Site but that is not recommended.
While it works it should really be used only as a last resort. Logging in directly as root is a much better idea, as su-ing incurs lots of extra overhead and these connections are noticeably slower as a result. Also, there is a serious limitation on "su to root" logins: scp does not recognize them. That means that even if you are su'd to root, to transfer files to and fro, scp only recognizes your original login credentials. This is not a bug, it is a "security feature" of SSH/SCP. Because of this, you may have to copy files into a writable directory like /tmp, then on the remote viewer where you are already root, move it into its final protected directory.

Transcript:
The transcript window includes important debug information. It's primary purpose is to help US diagnose a problem you might have connecting to a remote site. Even if its output looks a little cryptic it is a very important trouble shooting tool. During normal operation its use is not recomended, since it unnecessarily uses system resources.

RBrowser is not loading the contents of my directories in FTP.. help!:
There could be two main causes of this:
1. Most likely you turned on your firewall, so the FTP data connection is blocked from the server. Use passive FTP, by selecting the switch on the Login Panel.
2. If that does not make difference, maybe the LIST "-a" flag is causing a problem for the server. This is rare, but it happens. Call up this Site on the Login Panel, so the hostname/user info are all filled in. Click "Site Preferences" to bring up the Site specific preferences for THIS site. Under the General tab, turn off the option called "Add -a to LIST command". Apply and close the panel, then login again.

Do Not drag remote files onto app tiles on your dock!
Normally, on the local system, you can open files by dragging them onto an app tile on your dock. When you drag a remote file out of an RBrowser window, RB puts the remote path of this file on the pasteboard. One good use of this is to drag a remote file into a Terminal window, and Terminal displays the path as if you typed it in. It can be very useful when you are actually logged onto the same remote host and want to manipulate this file.
However, if you drop it onto let's say TextEdit's icon, TextEdit will launch and try to open this file. At best, the path will not make sense on the local system, so nothing will happen. At worst, the file may also exist on the local system, and TextEdit will open the LOCAL file instead of the remote one. Always use doubleclick or the O (Open) menu to edit a remote file.

Abort loading large directories:
On some systems, there are large user directories that hold more than 10,000 entries. If your home directory sits in one of these large directories, RBrowser will automatically load this directory when you log in. Use the KILL button in the Processes panel to abort loading this directory. The rest of the directories will load just fine. On these systems please use the "Load Home Only" option on the Login Panel. Using this option will speed up login by a great deal, since the large directory above your home directory will not have to be loaded.

Permissions and Modification times:
By default, permissions and modification times are preserved during file transfer whenever possible (Yes, even with FTP download).

Document opening: You can double click on an executable file (at your own risk, of course) and the file will be opened. Exercise caution about testing large executable files this way. This feature should to make it easy to edit script files.

Short Hand for deleting files: You can assign a COMMAND- combination (or any other unused key) for the delete file menu. To do so, issue this command in the Terminal BEFORE you launch RBrowser:
defaults write com.rbrowser.rbrowser RBDestroyEquiv r

File Copying: It is possible that copying will fail and there is no error message. The file simply does not appear in the target directory. This could happen if some of the files being copied are not readable or writable. Depending on the implementation of tar on the target machine tar might just silently fail in this situation.

File Transfer: Under the ssh protocol, RBrowser uses scp for file transfers. scp should reside in the same directory as the ssh client (usually in /usr/local/bin). RBrowser does its best to find it, if it cannot be found, you will see a panel asking for the full path of scp. The most important new feature: if you have two remote ssh connections, you can transfer files from one to the other DIRECTLY by simply dragging and dropping as usual!

Progress Bar: The progress bar is only accurate on large file transfers.

International character support: In general, these files will appear in the browser correctly, provided that the remote host uses one of the character encodings known to MacOSX. The most common one used by Solaris and HP-UX is ISO Latin-1. If you copy a file like this onto another host (or the local host), the filename may appear different due to a different encoding. Sometimes filenames have multi-byte UTF-8 characters in them. When that is the case, a lot of shell operations will break. It is best to avoid those names altogether.

Show sizes always in KBytes: In some instances it is desirable to look at file sizes in KBytes even if they are large for better accuracy. For this we have a "secret" default. Stop RBrowser and issue this command in the Terminal: >defaults write com.rbrowser.rbrowser RBShowKSizeOnly YES and restart RB again.

Uninstalling RBrowser: If you decide to uninstall RBrowser, here is a list of files RBrowser maintains: RBrowser.app, ~/Library/Application Support/RBrowser/, ~/Library/Preferences/com.rbrowser.rbrowser. You may have passwords stored in the Key Chain (fire up Key Chain Access app), and the remote UNIX/SSH hosts you have connected to may have a ~/.rbrowser directory.