By -Anti- on

I'm using FlashFXP Windows ftp client.
It doesn't allow me to compress/uncompress archives or copy files/directories to other locations.
However, the cpanel 'file manager' can do those things; it is just a pain having to log-in all the time.

Should an ftp client be able to carry out those three functions?
It is beginning to be a pain not being able to do it from the ftp client.

Cheers.

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

Magnity’s picture

Magnity commented

All I normally want (or expect) from my ftp client is the ability to copy files between my local and remote disks, plus create folders / edit permissions on the remote disks.

For zip/unzip i'd use a dedicated program on my local machine.

Magnity

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themphill’s picture

themphill commented

I frequently FTP compressed archives back and forth in order to save transfer time and preserve the modification dates of files. To create and expand archives remotely, I gain shell access (SSH) and use the UNIX command line tools (e.g. gzip) available on the server.

-Anti-’s picture

-Anti- commented

> For zip/unzip i'd use a dedicated program on my local machine.

However, I want to zip my remote drupal directory for backup purposes.

At the moment I have login to my Cpanel backend and use its
file manager to zip the directory. I could also invoke this with a
php script, run from my browser.

However, both methods are inferior than doing it straight from my ftp client.
I'm wondering why my ftp client doesn't have that capability, and whether
it is usual for ftp clients not to be able to zip/unzip on the remote server?

Thanks for any further information.

themphill’s picture

themphill commented

I've never seen a client with this capability, but I, too, wish there were such a thing.

I think the difficulty implementing this in an FTP client is because the application doesn't know what compression utilities are available on the server, or where they might be located. And yes, the actual work has to be done on the remote end. I suppose it could be configured by the user for each remote site in the application's preferences, but that might be confusing to less technical users.

Scripts running on the server overcome this problem by declaring the location of the invoked program in the "shebang line" (e.g. #!/usr/bin/perl). A script to backup your entire web directory is pretty simple, but to make it interactive is much more complex. Hence my use of a remote shell.

francewhoa’s picture

francewhoa
he/him
Primary language French
Location Sept-Îles, Québec, 🇨🇦
commented

No FTP client that I know of can extract file.

Most web browser file managers are able to do that though. Such as Virtualmin / Webmin 'File manager' or CPanel 'File manager'.

Another option is using a SSH client with command line. List of SSH clients at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_SSH_clients

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-Anti-’s picture

-Anti- commented

Thanks.

I stopped using a dedicated ftp client in favour of FireFTP firefox plugin (great plugin BTW).

So what I have started doing is opening a separate firefox instance with both 'cpanel file-manager' and 'FireFTP' loaded in respective tabs. I saved these tabs as a 'session' and have the cpanel login details saved, so it is basically a one-click startup.

Having all FTP operations in the same 'place' (ie. browser tabs in the same window) helps the workflow.

tiwiex’s picture

tiwiex commented

I ran into this post while looking for the same functionality. I am certain I used to use it on WS FTP. I hope that was the client. And it works like magic. Upload a zipped file. Right click on the remote end and voila you can unzip. I can't find ws ftp for mac but i am sure I used it on an FTP client. I am surprised no one ever used it. It makes life so so easy.

Let me try your firefox approach.

themphill’s picture

themphill commented

On the Mac I've recently been using Cyberduck, a free FTP/SFTP client. It offers remote archive (TAR and ZIP) creation and extraction.