Re: ftp & multi-hop?

[Kai Grossjohann]

"sp1ff" <address@hidden> writes:

> I'm looking at `tramp.el', and I'm wondering if we could define a
> method that would do just this.  I.e. only be permitted as the last
> hop, and use ftp (or any out-of-band mechanism, I suppose).  I suppose
> we'd need to define an action that could be handled by
> `tramp-process-multi-actions', yes?  Or would this be a real kludge?
> I'm new to `tramp' ...  BTW - what's 'smb'?

Let's talk about a regular out-of-band method first.  Then the above
would not be sufficient since one would need two shell connections
where Tramp currently supports only one.  One shell connection is
needed to the real target machine, for filename completion and
suchlike.  The second shell connection is needed for the next-to-last
hop, for picking up the temp files.

Note that this either means that the user needs to enter all passwords
twice, or that Tramp needs to store the passwords.

For Ange-FTP, something even more complex is needed I'm afraid: one
would have to have two shell connections to the penultimate hop.  One
of them is for the temp files, as before, and the other would be for
starting ftp to the destination.  The ftp shell would then be run
under Ange-FTP's control.

One approach for ameliorating this problem would be to integrate
Ange-FTP better with Tramp.  One could reuse the Ange-FTP
buffer-parsing routines, but otherwise invoke Ange-FTP under Tramp
control.  It would only be an indirect contribution, though.

Kai