Using Fetch For File Transfers On The Macintosh

Fetch is a user-friendly application for transferring files using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Fetch employs the familiar Macintosh interface to transfer files with any connected machine that supports FTP, such as St. Olaf's UNIX computers and myriad other hosts throughout the world that are on the Internet.

 

1.0 Locating And Launching Fetch

On St. Olaf public and office Macintoshes, Fetch is located in the Applications folder; double-click on the Fetch icon to launch the application. (If you do not have Fetch on your hard drive, it is available for downloading in the Mac Installs folder on the server prime.stolaf.edu; please refer to Novell Servers at St. Olaf for help connecting to the server

 

2.0 Transferring Files Between The Mac And Your UNIX Account

After you have launched Fetch, follow these steps to connect to a local UNIX host:


Figure 1: Open Connection Dialog box

  1. When you launch Fetch, the Open Connection dialog box appears as in Figure 1. (The content of the fields may vary.) Type the host name of the machine you want to connect to. For example, type "webdrive.stolaf.edu" in the Host box as illustrated in Figure 1.
  2. Press TAB to move to the "User ID:" field, type your UNIX account login name, and press TAB again.
  3. In the "Password:" field, type your UNIX account password. Bullets will appear in the field as you type. This is a standard password security technique to keep others from seeing your password.
  4. Press TAB once more to move to the "Directory:" field. Press the Delete key to remove any information from this field; doing so will place you in your UNIX account's home directory.
  5. When all of the information is entered correctly, press RETURN or click on OK to make a connection. The mouse pointer will turn into a running dog while the connection is being established.

Once the connection has been made, a list of files in your UNIX account's home directory will appear in the file list box of the Fetch window. (See Figure 2.) Files in your UNIX account will be represented by document icons. If you have subdirectories in your UNIX account, they will appear as folder icons. The name of the current directory (in this case, your login name) is displayed as the title in the pop-up menu above the file list box. To change to a subdirectory, simply double-click on the appropriate folder icon in the file list. (To move back up in the directory structure, click and hold on the directory-name box above the file list. A menu will pop down; drag to select the parent directory you want, and release the mouse button.)


Figure 2: The Fetch Window

2.1 Macintosh to UNIX Transfers

Keep in mind that most Macintosh files will not transfer "as is" to UNIX in a useful form. If you are transferring a word-processor file to be read on UNIX, you must first save it as plain text (also called "ASCII," "Text Only," or "DOS" text). For example, if you wish to transfer a text file written in Microsoft Word, you should first save a copy of the file with the format Text Only with Line Breaks; transfer this "text only" version to UNIX. It is also a good idea to give your file a UNIX-compatible name before you transfer it (i.e., no spaces or special characters). To transfer a file from the Mac to UNIX, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate through Fetch until you find the location you want the file to go in.
  2. Open up the folder in which the file is located and position the folder so that you can see both it and the Fetch window.
  3. Select and drag the file from the folder on the Mac to the list of files in Fetch, this will copy the file into that UNIX location.

2.2 UNIX to Macintosh Transfers

  1. Navigate through Fetch until you find the location you want the file to go in.
  2. Open up the folder in which the file is located and position the folder so that you can see both it and the Fetch window.
  3. Select and drag the file from the list of files in Fetch to the folder on the Mac, this will copy the file into that UNIX location.

 

3.0 Using Fetch For Anonymous File Transfers From Remote Sites

One of the most powerful uses for Fetch is to log into remote sites for anonymous file transfers. Fetch will help you log in, locate what you want, transfer the file, decode it if necessary, and extract it if necessary.

You need to know the full Internet address of the remote host. For the purposes of this handout, we will use a popular site as an example: "ftp.dartmouth.edu". (Fetch comes preloaded with the addresses for several popular sites. See Section 5.0.)

The procedure for logging in is the same as before, but you will enter different information in the Open Connection dialog box (Figure 3).


Figure 3: Anonymous Login

  1. In the "Host:" field, enter the full name of the remote host (for example, ftp.dartmouth.edu).
  2. Press TAB to move to the "User ID:" field. Type "anonymous" instead of your UNIX login name.
  3. In the "Password:" field, type yourLoginName@stolaf.edu. This is a courtesy to let the remote site's administrators know who is making use of their system. NOTE: Do not use your St. Olaf UNIX password in this field.
  4. If you know the name of the directory you want to be in at the remote site, type it in the "Directory:" field. (For our example, type /pub in this field.) If you do not know a directory, leave this field blank.
  5. Click on OK. In a moment, you will connect to the remote site. If there are too many anonymous users logged on already, you will get a message telling you to try again later.

Once you have logged into the remote site, you use Fetch as explained earlier to locate and transfer the files to your hard drive. Depending on network traffic, the transfer can take some time, particularly with large files. As a courtesy to the remote sites, it is best to transfer very large files only during off-peak (non-business) hours.

If you are downloading archived files (many sites have files in compressed format to save disk space) and/or binary files, Fetch may decode and decompress the files as they download. See Section 8.0 for more information.

 

4.0 Closing And Opening Connections

When you are finished using a particular site but do not want to quit Fetch, it is a good idea to close the connection you are finished with before opening a new connection. To close a connection, simply click on the close box in the upper left-hand corner of the window for that connection. To open a new connection, select New Connection... from the File menu.

 

5.0 Shortcuts

Fetch comes preloaded with shortcuts for several popular sites and "mirror" sites, including ftp.darmouth.edu, that are ready for you to use. A mirror site is one that has the same contents as the original, but is likely to be less busy.

To use a shortcut to connect to a host, select New Connection... from the File menu, click and hold on the downward-pointing triangle to the right of Shortcuts: at the bottom of the Open Connection dialog box (Figure 3), drag to select the shortcut, and release the mouse button. The information for the shortcut will appear in the appropriate fields. If you are using the shortcut for anonymous file transfers from a remote site, type anonymous in the "User ID:" field and "yourLoginName@stolaf.edu" in the "Password:" field. If you are using a shortcut to your UNIX account (as explained below), type your UNIX login name in the "User ID:" field (if necessary) and your UNIX password in the "Password:" field. Click on OK to open the connection.

Aside from the preset shortcuts, you can set up your own shortcuts to eliminate typing in the host name, account name, and password for sites you use frequently. Setting up a shortcut to your account on webdrive might be a real time saver for you. Follow these steps to set up a shortcut:

  1. Select New Shortcut... from the Customize menu. Type in a shortcut name (e.g., "webdrive" or "Dartmouth") and press TAB.
  2. Type in the host name (e.g., "webdrive.stolaf.edu" or "ftp.dartmouth.edu") and press TAB.
  3. In the "User ID:" field, type your login name or anonymous, depending on whether you are setting up a shortcut to your St. Olaf UNIX account or to a remote site for anonymous file transfers, and press TAB.
  4. If you are setting up a shortcut to your UNIX account, leave the "Password:" field blank. IMPORTANT: Do not put your UNIX password in this field. If you were to do so, anyone who sat down at the computer would have free access to your UNIX account. If you are setting up a shortcut for anonymous file transfers at a remote site, type "yourLoginName@stolaf.edu" in the "Password:" field, and press TAB. (Bullets will appear as you type.)
  5. In the "Directory:" field, enter the name of the directory that you want to go to first. For example, if you most often use the "pub" directory at ftp.dartmouth.edu, type "/pub" in this field. If you do not know a directory name, leave this field blank. If you are setting up a shortcut to your UNIX account, make sure this field is blank. Click on OK when you are done.

5.1 Bookmarks in Fetch

If you find yourself going frequently to a particular directory (or folder) at a particular site, you can save yourself some time by setting a bookmark. The bookmark provides a quick load of that directory instead of having to work through the directory structure. While you are in a directory at a site for which you wish to set a bookmark, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Open Bookmark File... from the File menu. Locate the "Bookmarks" file in the Fetch folder, and click on Open.
  2. Select New Bookmark... from the Customize menu.
  3. Enter the appropriate information in the dialog box. (Do not worry about the "Type:" field.) NOTE: If this is a bookmark to your UNIX account, Do Not enter your password in the "Password:" field; leave that field blank.
  4. When you are finished, click on OK.

To open that bookmark in a later session, choose Open Bookmark File... from the File menu, and locate and open the "Bookmarks" file. Double-click on the bookmark you want to open.

 

6.0 On-Line Help

On-line help is available; select Fetch Help from the Window menu. A list of topics will appear in the left-hand box. (See Figure 4.) Scroll through the list and click on the topic of your choice. The text will appear in the right-hand box. Scroll through the text as necessary. To exit Help, click in the close box in the upper left-hand corner of the Help window.


Figure 4: The Help Window

 

7.0 Closing And Quitting

When you are finished transferring files, select Quit from the File menu to end your Fetch session.

 

8.0 Archived Files

Many of the files that you transfer to your Macintosh have been compressed into archive form. (This saves valuable disk space on the host machine.) The archive must be extracted before the file can be used. The two most common archiving programs are StuffIt and Compact Pro. If you have the proper versions of these programs on your hard drive, Fetch will automatically extract the archives for you.

If you do not have these programs on your hard drive, Fetch will place the file on your hard drive in archived form. StuffIt archive filenames end with a ".sit" extension; Compact Pro archives use a ".cpt" extension. You may extract the archives using StuffIt Expander, which is available on the St. Olaf Distribution server in the St. Olaf zone in the Free Software folder. Copy StuffIt Expander to your hard drive. Drag the archive icon onto the StuffIt Expander icon and release the mouse button. This procedure will extract both StuffIt and Compact Pro archives. Once the archive is extracted, you may trash the actual archive file (the one with the ".sit" or ".cpt" extension); it is no longer needed, and it may be quite large, needlessly consuming space on your hard drive.

 

9.0 Changing Permissions With Fetch

Every file on the web server has a set of permissions which indicate who has access to read, write and execute that specific file. For people using the St. Olaf Templates it is very important to have the proper permissions set on your files so that they will correctly display the St. Olaf headers and footers.

To change the permissions on a file using Fetch:

  1. Left click on the file that you wish to change permissions on.
  2. Under the Remote menu click on the Set Permissions... option.
  3. On the window that pops up there will be 3 columns, Owner, Group and Other. Check the following boxes:
    • Owner : Read, Write and Execute
    • Group : Read, Write and Execute
    • Other : Read and Execute
  4. Click OK to set these changes.

NOTE: This must be done for every file that uses the standard St. Olaf headers and footer.

 

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