Today I had to transfer 700Mb from one server to another in the same data center. SSH in to server #1 to grab the files from server #2 – but “a” wasn’t working as an answer to mget (multiple get) as it usually does – meaning “get all”: each file needed an individual yes/no answer a the command line to confirm that I really did want to download it. 

I really didn’t fancy having to watch/wait/click as 1400 files got copied over. 

Easy answer: type “prompt” in your ftp shell to toggle the prompting on and off.

Job done and all files sent over in a jiffy – without having to do a 4,000 km round trip to my desktop or further stuffing my internet connection.


ssh user@host.com
cd path/to/your/files
ftp ftp.host.com
cd path/to/your/files
prompt
mget *
bye
exit


Delete as appropriate.

Updated…

My email to transmit-at-panic.com:

Hi,

I’m sure it may be because I hadn’t RTFM in a while but I’ve just discovered that Transmit carries out Synchronisations based on its cache. I had always assumed that a mirror sync would update the cache first. I now realise this must have been causing some of my troubles with old files eventually reappearing on my server.

I use CODA to work on the site and Transmit to keep a set of rolling backups. (SVN has only just become an option for me.) I’ve been working on the site using CODA while Transmit stays open. I will now be making sure that I keep the syncing process separate (and restart Transmit before any sync operation) to avoid the glitches that have been troubling me. Obviously I’m looking to get my SVN server up and running as soon as possible.

Perhaps a notice in the Transmit UI to warn of this might be helpful.

Thanks

Update

Date: 25 February 2009 00:55:08 GMT+01:00
Subject: Re: Sync issues

Hi Gabriel,
This will be vastly improved in a future version of Transmit.
–
Les
Panic Inc.

Great stuff! Lets hope that new version is around the corner. I reckon it may well be. TBC.