Fetch Softworks

Why can't I disable automatic opening of all file types? (5 posts)

• Started 17 years ago by AdamG
• Latest reply 17 years ago from Scott McGuire

• AdamG Member

  Hello,

  I am a new user to Fetch, and it did take a bit of time to get used to the interface (as I'm used to FileZilla and CuteFTP). But since I'm using a FTPS server, it's necessary to have a compliant client.

  When I attempt to transfer a bunch of files or an entire directory structure from one machine to another, it's insanely frustrating to have Fetch automatically open and expand the archive files. I can only imagine what would happen if there happen to be .dmg files or whatnot in the directory. I discovered that it's possible to disable this behaviour on a filetype basis, but this is needlessly cumbersome.

  If I want to disable the .zip file expansion, I have to navigate on my server to a .zip file, open the "get info" window, and turn off the automatically decode this file type. Give me a break. I spent 30 minutes searching the various preference panes to figure out why this was happening and how to turn it off, only to discover that there's absolutely no global setting. It's simple and would make this a much better FTP client. I prefer my FTP clients to just copy files to/from my server.

  If I'm missing something, I'd love to hear it. If not, I'd love to see a quick patch to enable this behaviour.

  Thanks!
  Adam

  Posted 17 years ago #

• AdamG Member

  Sorry for the multiple posts. I did a more thorough search and found this topic has come up before. And raised issues I hadn't thought of as well (like the security aspect of automatically opening files, rather than just the irritation factor).

  I do agree that the default behaviour should be to simply copy, not to copy and open.

  Cheers,
  Adam

  Posted 17 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Adam,

  Yes, as you've seen, we are aware that this behavior isn't desirable for some of our users, and we are looking into providing an easy way to disable all decoding in a future version of Fetch.

  By default, Fetch does not "open" .dmg files or any other files automatically after download. (You can tell Fetch to open certain kinds of files automatically if you want, but it doesn't do it by default.) Its only default behavior is that it will decompress archive files, or decode encoded files - such as .sit, .zip, .hqx - it never attempts to execute them or their contents, so we do not feel that there is a serious security hazard presented by this behavior. Nevertheless, as I said, we do hear you saying that is not something you want Fetch to do, and we do plan to address it in the future.

  However, there may be a workaround that you can use now for what you're trying to do. If you want an exact copy of a server directory and all its contents - it sounds like that's what you're trying to accomplish - use Fetch's Mirror window to download the folder, instead of dragging the file from the Fetch window or using the Get command. When you use the Mirror window, Fetch will download the folder structure as is, and will not decode any of the archives or encoded files in the folder structure. You can Mirror between the server and a folder on your Macintosh, or even between two different folders on two different servers. Mirroring also only copy new or updated files, so that you don't have to download the entire folder every time. (It's basically a synchornization feature.)

  For more information, see the [http://www.fetchsoftworks.com/FetchWebHelp/Contents/Windows/MirrorWindowIntro.html]Mirror Window[/url] topic in Fetch Help (or click the link here).

  I hope this helps, and please let us know if you have any other questions.

  (By the way, I also answered your question about the certificate warnings in another post.)

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 17 years ago #

• AdamG Member

  Thanks Scott. I only want partial mirroring, unfortunately (but I had found that function earlier, in fact).
  Thanks,
  Adam

  Posted 17 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Adam,

  Out of curiosity, could you explain more in detail what you mean by "partial mirroring"?

  (We are also considering improvements to the mirror function in the future, and this seems like it could be good feedback for that.)

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 17 years ago #