[Bongoman]

Hi there

I use Terminal to sftp files up to a web server on a regular basis.

Is there a way to script the connection, the entering of a password, cd to the correct directory on the server, and lcd to my local directory?

Do I use AppleScript or a shell script or a combination of the two?

Cheers

BongoMan

[Arkham_c]

Since sftp is based on ssh, you have a couple of options.

1) One item that makes this up is authentication. Falling back to passwords is a last resort for SSH. Instead, do an ssh-keygen on the client, and add that key to the authorized_keys file on the server box. If you want not to prompt for a password, use an empty passphrase in the private key.

2) If you don't want to do that (if the private key could be obtained by someone), you can run ssh-agent, which will cache the passphrase in memory once it has been entered.

Both of these should apply equally to ssh, scp, and sftp, since they're all the same underlying encryption/authentication technology.

[geekwagon]

Can you use scp instead of sftp? SFTP is intended to be used interactive so it is difficult to script actions in it. In general you use a scripting language like "expect" to control an interactive program. Not sure if you can do it with Applescript, my background is Solaris

scp is easier to script because all options are entirely done at the command line. You can just use normal shell scripting to control it. You will still need to use ssh-agent or something to automate the authentication like the previous poster mentioned.

[TeknoTurd]

i agree, scp is a lot easier to script. dont bother with scripting sftp unless its absolutley necessary.