RBrowser

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© Copyright Robert Vasvari, 1993-2003.

SSH Site Preferences

The preferences in RBrowser have two levels: global and site specific settings.

Site preferences apply to a single site only. This panel is different for each connection protocol. Below is the panel for the SSH protocol. Use the RBrowser/Site Preferences (<COMMAND>-) menu to bring up the Preferences Panel.

Site Preferences can be used on a site even if it is not open. If the site is not open the new settings will be saved in the preferences file and used next time the site is connected to. If you want to edit these preferences before you ever log in, use the "Site Preferences" button on the login panel.

Options Tab:

Character Encoding:
You can tell RBrowser what character encoding the remote host uses. This could help the browser to correctly display characters in the upper ASCII set (e.g. ¥ or ª, etc.) which are used in a lot of languages and interpreted differently on various hosts. The default is UTF-8.

Open At Startup:
As a convenience, some sites can be auto opened when RBrowser starts up. Use this option for sites you always need.

SSH Mode:
'Auto' is the default where ssh picks protocol 1 or 2 automagically by negotiating with the server. The additional choices here can force ssh to use either protocol 1 or 2.

Load Home Directory Only:
This option can be set on an unopened site. If set, RBrowser will load only the home folder and its subfolders. If you are not interested in browsing the entire machine, this is a quick way to get to your files. Default is OFF.


Limits Tab:

Maximum Connections:
This is the maximum number of open connections RBrowser will hold simultaneously to the remote site. Holding multiple connections speeds up folder loads and virtually all other operations.

Maximum Persistent Connections:
RBrowser will keep some of the above mentioned connections open. This speeds up access to the remote site, since connections will not have to be opened every time the File Viewer is touched.

Connection Inactivity Timeout:
Persistent connections will be terminated after the time period set in this preference. This is necessary to save network resources. If the connections time out, RBrowser will reconnect automatically at any subsequent activity.

Permissions for New Empty Files:
Files created on the remote host with the File/New Empty File command will get these permissions. Entry should be in the 0655 or rwxr-xr-x format.


Helpers Tab:

Remote Shell:
If the UNIX protocol is used to connect to the remote host, RBrowser is actually talking to a shell on the remote machine. You are encouraged to use a shell that is eight bit clean (like ksh, zsh) so international character support will work correctly. RBrowser will search the remote host for Bourne-compatible shells in the following order: "ksh","zsh","jsh","ash","sh". RBrowser MUST find one of these, otherwise the SSH protocol cannot be used.

Shell Search Path:
If the SSH protocol is used to connect to the remote host, RBrowser makes heavy use of the standard UNIX utilities, such as cp, mv, gzip, chmod, etc. By default, RBrowser uses the most standard implementations of these utilities. The fields in Program Paths allow you to make your connection to use more up-to-date versions of these utilities, for instance the ones in /usr/5bin that is available on SunOS and Solaris. It is encouraged to use a shell that is eight bit (like ksh, zsh) so international character support will work correctly. However, these shells are not always available. This path definition is in the following format:
fullpath1:fullpath2:...:fullPathn:
If you edit it, make sure to include the ':' separators.

Local SSH/SCP/SFTP:
The ssh utilities used by RBrowser on the local system FOR THIS SITE ONLY.

Remote SCP Client:
If you really want to tell RBrowser what SCP to use on the remote side of this connnection, enter the full path here. You are not encouraged to enter anything here, since RBrowser will autodetect the SCP client on the remote side.


Proxy Tab:

Use SSH Proxy:
Enter the login info for the SSH proxy host here. For a description of how SSH proxy works see Secure Shell (SSH).


Transfer Tab:

Remote-to-Remote Advanced Options:
These options are explained in Secure Shell (SSH).


Advanced Tab:

SU user/password This login/passwd pair will be user the change user's credentials after login. Can be used if SSH security settings disallow direct root logins. Be sure to read its limitations in Secure Shell (SSH).


Set:
Saves the new preference settings. Also, all entries are verified (the remote shell must exist, etc...).
Cancel: keep the old settings.
Delete Preferences:
Upon any successful login the preferences files are saved. These files will show up under the Remote/Site Preferences menu. If the preferences were called up on an unopened site, this button will erase the file and remove it from the preferences list. Preferences files can be found in ~/Library/Application Support/RBrowser/.