Re: Using tramp with sunrise-commander

[José A . Romero L .]

On 2 Gru, 14:15, Haines Brown <hai...@HistoricalMaterialism.info>
wrote:
> José A. Romero L. <escherdra...@gmail.com> writes:
>
> The situation is complicated.

Seems to be, indeed :)  I'm afraid you are struggling with several
different issues at the same time, not only with Sunrise, but also
with Tramp and Debian.

> When I log in to a remote host, Sunrise Commander displays its base
> directory ("www").

What Tramp method are you using? In other words, what string are you
using to access the remote host? (e.g. "/ssh:host.com:/some/dir/")

> I can open a file in that directory for editing, but can't save the
> changes. I get the error: "Wrong type argument: arrayp,nil". This is
> repeatable. When I proceed close the file without saving, something odd
(...)

I don't think this is related to Sunrise - more to Tramp. Try doing
M-x toggle-debug-on-error before trying to save. Does that display
some meaningful error trace?

> If I try to copy a file to that remote host base directory by issuing
> the M-C command, instead of Sunrise Commander providing by default the
> name of the opposite pane (the remove host directory) to which I wish to
> copy, it picks some local buffer. If I type in the address of the remote
> host, I'm prompted for the password to access it.

That's probably normal Tramp behavior. From the Tramp manual:

    External methods should be configured such a way that they don't
    require a password (with ssh-agent, or such alike). Modern scp
    implementations offer options to reuse existing ssh connections,
    see method scpc. If it isn't possible, you should consider
    Password handling, otherwise you will be prompted for a password
    every copy action.
    (http://www.gnu.org/software/tramp/)

(...)
> selected. I tried an experiment. I'm not sure this is possible, but I
> brought up an emacs shell and did: ! cd <subdirectory>. The error
> messages I got was: "ssh_askpass: exec(/usr/bin/ssh-askpass): No such
> file or directory. Host key verification failed."

That's Debian-related, see:

    http://www.google.pl/search?q="ssh_askpass%3A exec(%2Fusr%2Fbin
%2Fssh-askpass)%3A No such file or directory"&hl=pl&lr=

> Not only can't Sunrise-Commander navigate down and open <subdirectory>,
> but when I navigate up (..), I somehow jump over the "primariy" directory
> to arrive at the very top ".." directory. Dired does not do
> this. Sunrise Commander can navigate from ".." down into primary, but
> not from primary further down to www. Dired can do that. I suspect some
> of this may be simply how the
(...)

I just can't replicate that behavior. In version 4R339 there was a
problem accessing remote subdirectories (like "/dir/subdir/"), but
that is now fixed. What kind of server is your remote host?

The only two differences in navigation (AFAIK) are that 1) Sunrise
ignores all requests to cd to ./ (the current directory) and to
/.. (a directory above the root of the current file system).
Excepting for those, you should be able to navigate freely up and
down the directory tree.

(...)
> Sorry to complicate things, but I did once manage to have
> Sunrise-Commander open the subdirectory. If in the pane that is not
> displaying the remote host, displays the Ange-ftp messages, a RET in
> Sunrise-Commander mode does open the remote subdirectory. However, I
> can't get Sunrise-Commander to do it if, for example, the other buffer
> is displaying a dired page.

Maybe you're trying to access the same host using different Tramp
methods and are getting confused by inconsistent behavior? Different
Tramp methods can behave in surprisingly different ways, sometimes.
For instance, /ftp: is a completely different beast than /scp: or
/ssh:

Cheers,
--
José A. Romero L.
escherdragon at gmail
"We who cut mere stones must always be envisioning cathedrals."
(Quarry worker's creed)