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.bin suffix in file list (10 posts)

  • Started 15 years ago by bsteele
  • Latest reply 15 years ago from Scott McGuire
  • bsteele Member

    Connecting with Fetch 5 to a web folder on a Leopard server. All the files show up with a .bin suffix added to their names. E.g.
    onefile.html.bin
    twofile.jpg.bin

    In the kind column they're identified as macbinary. If I download a file it arrives as a macbinary encoded file (which for some reason chokes Stuffit Expander) rather than as text or whatever. If I try to edit the file remotely, Tex-Edit won't save directly, because it thinks the file is not one of its own.

    This hasn't happened before with other FTP servers.

    How do I get it to identify files correctly?

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi,

    We'd like some more information to help diagnose the problem.

    If you can look at the files on the server directly - or using something other than FTP - do the files have .bin extensions then, or do they only show .bin extensions when you view them with Fetch?

    We'd also like to see a Fetch transcript, which will provide us more details about what's going on. Could you please do the following?

    * Quit Fetch, if it's running.
    * Open Fetch again.
    * Connect to your server.
    * Change to the folder with the files in question.
    * Go to the View menu, and choose Refresh.
    * Go to the Window menu, and choose Fetch Transcript.
    * Copy the entire contents of the transcript window, and paste them into a reply to this message.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • bsteele Member

    No, of course the files on the server do not have the .bin extension, or I wouldn't be asking this question.

    Here's one folder at random. All folders have the same behavior.

    Doing this, I noticed that jpg and png files do not acquire the .bin extension, but gif files do. Go figure.

    [This message has been edited by bsteele (edited 05-28-2008).]

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi,

    Thanks for the transcripts.

    You said the server is "a Leopard server." Do you know if it running the built-in FTP server of Mac OS X, or is it running third-party server software, such as Rumpus or CrushFTP?

    The reason I ask is I think this is likely caused by a server setting of some sort; some third-party Mac FTP servers serve up Mac files at MacBinary. Although the fact that StuffIt Expander won't decode them - and in fact, Fetch should automatically decode MacBinary files when downloaded - is a little odd if that's the case.

    Sorry not to have an immediate answer for you, but if you can find out what server software the server is running (including the version number, if possible), I will refer this to one of my colleagues for research.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • bsteele Member

    Just tried with Cyberduck and got the same result, so yes, it's about the server.

    Mac OS X server 10.5.2, using its own internal FTP.

    The only setting I can see that might be relevant is that "Enable MacBinary and disk image conversion" is checked. That was the default, and sounds logical. If there are more detailed settings to consider, they don't seem to be available in Server Admin, maybe only in a config file somewhere.

    I have, BTW, posted the same question on the Apple Xserve forum. If I get an answer I'll echo it back here.

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi,

    I did a little research, and according to some Apple support documents for Mac OS X Server:

    To have files with resource forks listed with a .bin suffix so that clients will take advantage of automatic file conversion when transferring them, select "Enable MacBinary and Disk Image auto-conversion."

    So in theory, the server is serving everything with a .bin suffix up as MacBinary files, and Fetch should be automatically decoding them on download. It sounds like the server may not be doing the right thing, though, and the decoding is not successful. (Even files that you would not expect to have resource forks, such as JPEG files, often have small resource forks that contain unimportant resources that don't need to be preserved - but the Mac OS X server doesn't realize that.)

    The first thing I'd try is turning off the "Enable MacBinary and Disk Image auto-conversion" option on the server and see if that fixes the problem.

    If turning that option off isn't an option, I would make sure the following options are set in Fetch:

    * That your Download mode is set to Automatic (Remote menu > Mode submenu > Automatic);
    * In the Fetch Download Preferences pane., make sure "Allow automatic decoding of downloaded files" in checked.

    Let us know if either of those suggestions helps.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • bsteele Member

    Turning off that option on the server has solved the suffix problem, and files now download just fine.

    Which leads to a new problem. I went into Get Info and set the option to open .html files in Tex-Edit Plus. This works, up to a point. Downloaded HTML files show up with a Tex-Edit icon. When I click Edit, the file opens in Tex-Edit. But when I save, it does not save back to the remote server. I get a Tex-Edit Save As window, and the options include only local disks, not the remote server. Sort of negates the advantages of the remote edit feature.

    BTW, you might want to delete that transcript post. Takes up a lot of space, and kinda tells people a lot of stuff about my server I'd just as soon not broadcast.

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi,

    We're glad to hear changing that server setting fixed the problem.

    It looks like you've removed the transcript on your own, correct?

    The problem with Tex-Edit Plus appears to be due to a major quirk in Tex-Edit's save procedure. Normally, after you click the Edit button in Fetch, and then choose File > Save in the external editor, the file uploads back to the server automatically - no Save AS dialog appears. And indeed, if you edit a file with a .txt extension with Tex-Edit Plus, that's what happens.

    However, it seems that if your file has anything besides a .txt extension (such as .html), Tex-Edit Plus will not just save the file back to its original location. It feels it must ask you what format you want to save the file in, and puts up a Save As dialog instead, even if your file is just plain text.

    (You can verify this by opening a .html file from your hard drive in Tex-Edit, making a chance, and trying to save. You get the Save As dialog there, too.)

    Fetch's Edit command cannot work the Save As dialog, because the Mac OS X Save As dialog only knows about local disks or network volumes that you have mounted through the Finder. The Save As dialog does not know about connections you have opened in Fetch, and we'd have to write add-ons that modified the system software to do that, which would be both difficult and likely to cause conflicts with software.

    So, really, this is an issue with how Tex-Edit Plus behaves; it's fairly odd for it to throw up the Save As dialog at that point and I couldn't find a preference to change that behavior.

    I recommend you look into TextWranger or Smultron, which are both good, free text editors for the Mac that do not have this problem - if you edit an HTML file with one of them from Fetch, when you Save, it will get uploaded back to the server automatically; no dialogs will be shown.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • bsteele Member

    Yeah, I pretty much figured all that out after trying it in TextWrangler. I've sent off a note to the Tex-Edit folks about it. Thanks for all your effort.

    As you probably know, TextWrangler will do the FTP connection on its own. However, I'm leaning heavily on Fetch's folder mirroring. Many thanks for that feature!

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi,

    You're welcome.

    Yes, we know that TextWranger does have some FTP support built-in, but Fetch does have a variety of features that TextWrangler doesn't (such as Mirroring).

    Best,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

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