Mac Neophyte Tips: Finder doesn't support FTP write access Date: 2008-12-13 03:35:18
This one has bugged me for a while, because in the many years from 10.0 to 10.5, Apple hasn't deemed it necessary to build in full FTP support for Finder. I can't for the hell of me conceive why. Even Windows can do it. So, if you're stuck and think it's your fault every remote FTP folder seems to be read-only, relax. It's not you. It's Finder. I guess someone could write a protocol handler to replace the built-in version, but somehow I couldn't find one.
Of course, there are tons of FTP applications for Mac, but what's been missing for me is the ability to open a remote text file directly in an editor without having to manage a local copy first. So here's another solution, sort of.
Sort of. It's both clumsy and nice at the same time.
Back in the olden days, you could compile and install a lot of Unix GUI apps on your Mac only because of the dreaded X11 compatibility layer. And if you ever did that, you'll remember it brought all the suckyness of X to the Mac, and then some. But our friends at Trolltech have made OS native rendering a priority now with KDE 4, so it'll run natively on OS X, Windows, and your toaster (I'm guessing).
But what's that to do with FTP and Finder?
Well, KDE does support FTP write access. That means any KDE application, like text editors, can open remote files directly. And nice OS integration means those apps look somewhat acceptable and support the standard Mac UI stuff. A nice side effect is that KDE comes with lots of other apps, and some of them are not completely worthless.
Go to http://mac.kde.org and download all the packages, install them in the exact order they appear on the site. (Why they haven't made one single package escapes me, considering you absolutely need all of them to run anything.)
Now, after installing all of that (you'll need about 1 GB of free space), you should be able to run the common KDE apps by calling them from Spotlight. Like Kate for example. Although I'd been happier if I could have used my beloved XCode for editing remote files, the humble Kate comes in a solid second as far as my favorite editors are concerned. Now, in any KDE app that supports the manual input of a file path, you can do this:
and magical things will happen!
Update: or your could just use TextWrangler, which is a simple download and install. But, see, I think Kate is very sexy, uh sorry, I mean Kate is a very nice editor!
Of course, there are tons of FTP applications for Mac, but what's been missing for me is the ability to open a remote text file directly in an editor without having to manage a local copy first. So here's another solution, sort of.
Sort of. It's both clumsy and nice at the same time.
Back in the olden days, you could compile and install a lot of Unix GUI apps on your Mac only because of the dreaded X11 compatibility layer. And if you ever did that, you'll remember it brought all the suckyness of X to the Mac, and then some. But our friends at Trolltech have made OS native rendering a priority now with KDE 4, so it'll run natively on OS X, Windows, and your toaster (I'm guessing).
But what's that to do with FTP and Finder?
Well, KDE does support FTP write access. That means any KDE application, like text editors, can open remote files directly. And nice OS integration means those apps look somewhat acceptable and support the standard Mac UI stuff. A nice side effect is that KDE comes with lots of other apps, and some of them are not completely worthless.
Go to http://mac.kde.org and download all the packages, install them in the exact order they appear on the site. (Why they haven't made one single package escapes me, considering you absolutely need all of them to run anything.)
Now, after installing all of that (you'll need about 1 GB of free space), you should be able to run the common KDE apps by calling them from Spotlight. Like Kate for example. Although I'd been happier if I could have used my beloved XCode for editing remote files, the humble Kate comes in a solid second as far as my favorite editors are concerned. Now, in any KDE app that supports the manual input of a file path, you can do this:
ftp://username:password@server.com/directory/file
and magical things will happen!
Update: or your could just use TextWrangler, which is a simple download and install. But, see, I think Kate is very sexy, uh sorry, I mean Kate is a very nice editor!
Comments
 baba o'reilly |
baba o'reilly says
(2008-12-13 07:15:29)
bbedit supports this out of the box |
 Sebhelyesfarku |
Sebhelyesfarku says
(2008-12-13 07:53:43)
Uhh... what about... using BBEdit for e.g. ?... |
 Martin |
Martin says
(2008-12-13 13:15:32)
The free TextWrangler text editor can open and save files from/to FTP servers. |
|
Udo says
(2008-12-14 05:08:03)
Thanks! I haven't tried TextWranger, I'll be sure to check it out. BBEdit is popular but it isn't free (as far as I know) and more importantly I didn't like it when I tried the demo version. But I admit that was some time ago... | |
Martin |
Martin says
(2008-12-14 08:58:00)
TextWrangler is basically "BBEdit Lite", so if you didn't like BBEdit you probably won't like TW. I know the FTP program "Transmit" supports using external editors, and probably others do too. |
 Avahi |
Avahi says
(2008-12-15 15:09:59)
KDE on OS X, sacrilege, I say! ;-) /goes off to install //hey, look at all the shiny new apps ///some even work |
|
Udo says
(2009-04-27 14:36:53)
Well, it's a few months later now and I'm definitely happy with Kate and, on occasion, Dolphin (because it can create remote files with a right-click). Overall, FTP support in KDE is really really fast (way faster than in my favorite Windows app, PSPad). For completeness' sake, I feel I should direct people to have a look at MacFUSE, it's a spawn of the FUSE project that enables userland code to implement filesystems. Some ordinary FUSE protocols even compile without much effort on OS X, so you can get SFTP support pretty easily, as well as FTP and whatnot - from the commandline at least. There is also a GUI wrapper plus protocol implementations for SFTP, FTP and S3 called ExpanDrive, it costs 39.95 USD, which is too rich for my blood, but may be something you're interested in - depending on your usage scenario. Actually, I've added an opensource FTP/MacFuse/GUI bundle to the list of things I'd like to do if I ever have too much free time on my hands ;-) |
