fish-protocol

ate: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 14:39:38 +0000
From: P@draigBrady.com
To: ilug@linux.ie
Subject: [ILUG] [TOTD] mc virtual filesystems

I think midnight commander is a much under-used program. Anyway, one thing I noticed today is that it supports the FISH protocol (FTP-like file access over ssh). If you can ssh to a machine then try this in mc:

cd /#sh:user@machine/

Other very nice virtual filesystems are: tar, deb, rpm, diff, ... For these you can just hit enter on the file to browse into it.

Another handy remote virtual filesystem is ftp:

cd /#ftp:user:pass@isp/public_html

Note there is some very useful functionality that you can combine with this, like comparing a local and remote dir so you only have to copy new files, etc.

Finally here are some mc keybindings:
http://www.pixelbeat.org/lkdb/mc.html

Pádraig.

p.s. I'm using mc 4.6.0
p.p.s. KDE also supports fish (with fish://...)
p.p.p.s why is there no quivalent gnome-vfs plugin :-(
Seems like a very useful and quite simple project for someone.

From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] [TOTD] mc virtual filesystems
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 09:48:15 -0800

Quoting P@draigBrady.com:

> I think midnight commander is a much under-used program. Anyway, one
> thing I noticed today is that it supports the FISH protocol (FTP like
> file access over ssh).

If memory serves, it stands for FIles over SsH protocol.

> p.p.s. KDE also supports fish (with fish://...)

That's KDE 3.1 (I think) and later via the kio_fish "ioslave" plugin, e.g., in Konqueror, and other versions with patching.
http://www.garni.ch/fish/
http://ich.bin.kein.hoschi.de/fish/

And, by the way, the lftp client also supports FISH via its own internal implementation. High recommendation.
http://lftp.yar.ru/features.html

What's so great about the FISH protocol? It permits (among other things) ftp-like browsing over nothing more sophisticated than a generic SSH transport. So, no more dodgy sftp protocol that works practically nowhere, anyway. FISH will work against any sshd, period.

-- 
Cheers,
Rick Moen                                          ROMANI, ITE DOMVM!
rick@linuxmafia.com

From: Rick Moen rick@linuxmafia.com
To: ilug@linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] [TOTD] mc virtual filesystems
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 10:07:17 -0800

Quoting Conor_D_Wynne@Dell.com:

> What's wrong with sftp?

1. Still seldom enabled on the server end. 2. Supported by very few SSH packages and on few host operating systems on the client end.

Originally, it was implemented only in ssh.com's proprietary packages (and those of Data Fellows, by extension). Markus Friedl eventually reverse-engineered it for the OpenSSH project, but it's never been widely implemented.

Please note that FISH transport can potentially perform on the remote host anything else that can be done with shell commands, too, not just browsing. This could be seen as a security hazard, except that incoming SSH access is already pretty much the world's biggest remote-compromise goalpost.

-- 
Cheers,               It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
Rick Moen          It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
rick@            The hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning,
linuxmafia.com         It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.

Articles and discussion:

http://cork.linux.ie/article.php?story=20030214145357890
http://not.disenchanted.com/10087.html
http://www.slac.com/~mpilone/projects/kde/kmailssh/
http://www.kerneltraffic.org/kde/kde20011018_22.txt

See also:

Articles and discussion: