Interarchy
Complex Transfers Simplified - Only With A Mac
Interarchy
Complex Transfers Simplified - Only With A Mac
You can purchase Interarchy by choosing Purchase Interarchy from the Interarchy menu, or online at http://purchase.interarchy.com/.
You can look up your current or previous license status and serial numbers, and get information about discounted upgrades from http://enquiry.interarchy.com/.
Thanks for supporting us and enabling us to continue work on Interarchy.
See also the Purchase section.
When you Purchase Interarchy, you will immediately be emailed your username (email address) and serial number in the “Thanks For Your Purchase” email.
If you do not receive this promptly after purchasing, it may be that the email has not reached you, possibly due to spam filtering on your email service. In this case, try looking up your purchase at Kagi (click the Store Orders -> Order Inquiry System link) or at http://enquiry.interarchy.com/ (although that will email you your serial number which might again be lost to over-zealous spam filters).
If you purchase Interarchy by choosing Purchase Interarchy from the Interarchy menu, Interarchy will be registered automatically as soon as the transaction completes.
If you purchase Interarchy online at http://purchase.interarchy.com/, or if your preferences have been lost, you can register Interarchy by launching Interarchy and either immediately click the button or choose Register Interarchy from the Interarchy menu. Now enter the username (email address) exactly as shown and the serial number exactly as shown and click the button. If you have any problems, recheck that the email address and serial number you are entering is exactly as shown (the serial number’s email address does not change even if you have changed your email address with us or Kagi). In pretty much all cases, if you are having trouble entering the serial number, you are either using the wrong version of Interarchy, or are not entering the username and serial number exactly as shown in your license.
You can see who this copy of Interarchy is licensed to by choosing About Interarchy from the Interarchy menu and clicking the button.
In order to transfer files, you first need to know the following information, which you will generally get from your network administrator or your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Armed with this information, choose Connect to Server from the File menu. This will display the Connect to Server window. Select the desired protocol and choose the List action. Now enter the server, path (or leave it blank), username and password. For FTP/SSH, add “;ssh” at the end of the host.
Leave the Add to Keychain checked to save your password in your Keychain.
Now click the toolbar button.
If all goes well, after a short interval the Listing window will appear showing you the contents of the requested directory. If all does not go well, see the Troubleshooting section.
You can now navigate this window in the same way you would a Finder window. You can drag files from this window to the Finder, or from the Finder to the window. You can change to Column View or Icon View if you prefer.
It is a good idea to immediately choose Add Bookmark from the Bookmarks menu and save this bookmark with a name like “My FTP Directory”. It will be saved into the Bookmarks window and you can simply double click it next time to return to your directory.
Interarchy is connectionless, so you do not really login as such, but Interarchy does login (and out) for you automatically.
You can consider yourself ‘logged in’ whenever you have a Listing window open, as Interarchy will transparently login as needed.
To login the first time, choose Connect to Server from the File menu, select the desired protocol (FTP, SFTP or WebDAV), and the List action, then enter your server (add “;ssh” for FTP/SSH), path (it is best to leave this blank to start with), username and password into the Connect to Server window.
Leave the Add to Keychain checked to save your password in your Keychain.
Now click the toolbar button.
If all goes well, after a short interval the Listing window will appear showing you the contents of the requested directory and you will be effectively ‘logged in’. If all does not go well, see the Troubleshooting section.
You can now navigate this window in the same way you would a Finder window. You can drag files from this window to the Finder, or from the Finder to the window. You can change to Column View or Icon View if you prefer.
It is a good idea to immediately choose Add Bookmark from the Bookmarks menu and save this bookmark with a name like “My FTP Directory”. It will be saved into the Bookmarks window and you can simply double click it next time to return to your directory.
To get a directory listing, choose Connect to Server from the File menu, select the desired protocol (FTP, SFTP or WebDAV), and the List action, then enter your server (add “;ssh” for FTP/SSH), path (it is best to leave this blank to start with), username and password into the Connect to Server window.
Leave the Add to Keychain checked to save your password in your Keychain.
Now click the toolbar button.
If all goes well, after a short interval the Listing window will appear showing you the contents of the requested directory. If all does not go well, see the Troubleshooting section.
You can now navigate this window in the same way you would a Finder window. You can drag files from this window to the Finder, or from the Finder to the window. You can change to Column View or Icon View if you prefer.
It is a good idea to immediately choose Add Bookmark from the Bookmarks menu and save this bookmark with a name like “My FTP Directory”. It will be saved into the Bookmarks window and you can simply double click it next time to return to your directory.
By default, FTP uses TCP port 21, SFTP uses the SSH port, port 22, HTTP uses port 80, and HTTPS uses port 443. You can request a custom port by appending a colon (:) and the port number after the host name, for example “ftp.myisp.com:2525”.
Some File Transfer programs use the old-style “Font D/A Mover” interface of local files and remote files. While this is sufficient for simple uses, it really is not sufficient for users with multiple remote directories and servers who need a little more of the power that Interarchy provides.
However it is sometimes useful to have a local listing available in Interarchy to avoid having to navigate both Interarchy and the Finder. You can open a Listing window showing the local files on your harddisk by dragging the folder onto Interarchy, or by choosing Connect to Server from the File menu, select the File protocol, and the List action, then select a local folder and click the toolbar button. Now you can navigate your local directory in Interarchy just as you would in the Finder, or as you normally would navigate a remote directory in Interarchy. Placing this window beside your remote listing will allow you to use a similar interface to that seen with less powerful programs, but still retain the power to add another local or remote listing as needed.
To open a bookmark to return to somewhere you have been before, choose Show All Bookmarks from the Bookmarks menu if the Bookmarks window is not already visible, make sure the Bookmarks collection is selected, and then double click on the bookmark.
You can upload a file in a number of ways.
The normal way is to first display a Listing window (see the How do I get a listing of an FTP or SFTP directory? section) and then drag the file or folder from the Finder to the window.
Alternatively, you can upload a file manually by choosing Connect to Server from the File menu, select the desired protocol (FTP, SFTP, or WebDAV), the Upload action, and enter the required details (see the How do I get started? section for more information about the server, username and password). Enter the path to upload to (either of the file or the parent directory). Click the button to select the file to upload (or you can drag the file on to the source). Then click the toolbar button. To save the upload for repeated use, choose Add to Bookmarks from the action pop-up menu and click the toolbar button.
Another way is to drag a file from the Finder directly on to an listing bookmark in the Bookmarks window - the bookmark can act just like a folder and you can drop a file directly in to it without ever having to ‘log in’.
If you have a local mirror of your remote site, you can also set up an Auto Upload from the local folder to the remote directory. Then you can upload any file or folder within the local folder simply by dropping it on Interarchy.
Traditionally files starting with a dot (.) are not shown in listings to allow system files and such to be stored without cluttering the user’s view of the files in the directory.
You can control what files are shown or ignored in Listings, Folder Transfers and Mirroring by specifying a Perl Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE). Regular expression pattern matching allows you complete control over what files you see, but they are somewhat complex. The default configuration for Interarchy includes an “extended” (ie, more readable) pattern that allows you to enable or disable ignoring certain patterns just by adding or removing the comment to end of line (#) character for each pattern.
Many FTP servers do not display .files in their listings for the same reasons. Some of them implement a unix-style extension allowing a “-a” option to be sent to the LIST command to force displaying all files. However this is a non-standard extension and other servers may take this to mean “display only files with name ‘-a’”. You can force Interarchy to send the “-a” option by enabling the “Send LIST -a” preference in the Transfers panel of the Preferences window.
See also the PCRE Regular Expression Syntax section.
You can change the permissions for any file or folder by selecting a file in the Listing window and choosing Get Info from the Listing menu to display the Get Info window. Near the bottom there is a permissions panel. A default set of permissions are shown if the current permissions are not known to Interarchy (for example if the file has just been uploaded or the server does not list the permissions clearly). Select the permissions by clicking the checkboxes or typing the unix permission number. Click the button to make the changes.
Normally when you double click a file in a Listing window Interarchy will download the file.
You can change the action for any file type (that is, any extension) by selecting a file in the Listing window and choosing Get Info from the Listing menu to display the Get Info window. Near the bottom there is a pop-up menu to select the double click action for files like these. Select from Download, Edit With, or View With.
To get a listing of the links on a web page, choose Connect to Server from the File menu, select the HTTP protocol, and the List action, then enter the URL of the web page and click the toolbar button.
To download an entire website, choose Connect to Server from the File menu, select the HTTP protocol, and the Download Website action, then enter the URL of the web page you want to start from and click the toolbar button. Interarchy will download the specified web page and all pages it links to that are in the same directory or below.
Interarchy does not translate the pages at all so they are a faithful copy of the pages on the website, however this may mean they do not link together well in their new home on your harddisk. If the links are relative, then you should be able to view the pages and follow links as normal, but if absolute or full links are used, then the links may fail or link back to the original website.
To check a website for broken links, choose Connect to Server from the File menu, select the HTTP protocol, and the Check Website action, then enter the URL of the website to test. Normally Interarchy will read all pages referenced (directly or indirectly) from the starting page that are on the same server and in the same directory (or a sub-directory) as the starting page, and it will check all links referenced from any of those pages. Alternatively, you can have it read only the starting page, and/or check only links on the same server as the starting page.
You can also check a local website on your harddisk by selecting the File protocol and dragging the page or folder to the source field or clicking the button.
See also the Check Website Report Window section.
You can check your website on your remote server as described above (see the How do I check a website’s links? section), or if your website is stored in files on your harddisk, you can choose Connect to Server from the File menu, select the File protocol, and the Check Website action, then select the local folder.
See also the Check Website Report Window section.
To queue files for later download, first choose New Queue from the File menu to create a new Queue window. Now drag the files or folders from your Listing window to the Queue window. Now you can:
See also the Queue Window section.
In the Connect to Server window you can choose Add to Bookmarks from the action pop-up menu and then click the toolbar button or choose Add Bookmark from the Bookmarks menu to save an entry as a bookmark.
Alternatively, in the Listing window, you can select an item and choose Add Bookmark from the Bookmarks menu to save an item as a bookmark.
See also the Bookmarks section.
The easiest way to schedule a bookmark is to drop it in a new queue and schedule the queue. First, choose New Queue from the File menu, then drag the bookmark into the queue, click the toolbar button and schedule the bookmark for the desired time.
See also the Scheduling section.
To add a bookmark from a Listing window, select the entry and then choose Add Bookmark from the Bookmarks menu, or in the Connect to Server window, choose Add to Bookmarks from the action pop-up menu and then click the toolbar button. (see the How do I create a bookmark? section).
To work with bookmarks once they are created, first open the Bookmarks window by choosing Show All Bookmarks from the Bookmarks menu. Next, select a collection to work with. Your normal bookmarks go in the Bookmarks collection. Your Net Disks are in the Net Disks collection, your scheduled bookmarks go in the Scheduled Bookmarks collection, and your startup items go in the Startup Items collection. Interarchy fills in all the links it can find from your Address Book and from the network using Bonjour in their own collections.
Once you have selected the desired collection, you can:
See also the Bookmarks and How do I create a bookmark? sections.
You can schedule the action in the Connect to Server window to run at a specified time by choosing Schedule from the action pop-up menu.
Scheduled Bookmarks are displayed in the Scheduled Bookmarks collection in the Bookmarks window. In there you can:
See also the Scheduling, Bookmarks and How do I schedule a bookmark to run later? sections.
To control Interarchy from the Terminal or Unix command line, first ensure the interarchy tool is installed by clicking the button in the Advanced panel of the Preferences window. You will need Administrative Permissions to install the tool. Then make sure /usr/bin is in your path (or specify the path to the tool directly). If you do not have Administrative Permissions, but you know what you are doing, you can get the tool from inside the Interarchy application bundle.
Use man interarchy to read the help on the tool. A nice alias to use is:
getint (/usr/bin/interarchy --background --output .)
which you can use to download a URL with Interarchy, keeping Interarchy in the background and saving the file to the current directory.
You can also control Interarchy using AppleScript via the osascript tool.
You can use the defaults tool to read or write Interarchy preferences, including setting pre-site preferences, for example:
defaults write com.stairways.interarchy 'UsePassive' \
-dict DEFAULT -bool YES
defaults write com.stairways.interarchy 'UsePassive' \
-dict-add "*:porthost.com:*" -bool NO
See also the Unix Scripting, AppleScripting and Preferences sections.
Interarchy was one of the first AppleScriptable applications when System 7 was released over a decade ago and remains extensively scriptable and recordable.
To use Interarchy from AppleScript, open the Script Editor and open the Interarchy dictionary. You can:
You can use Interarchy to perform FTP, SFTP or WebDAV (including iDisk) actions using list, fetch, view, edit, store, remove, mkdir, rename, sendcommand, setpermissions, setuploadpermissions, duplicate, and create commands.
You can perform HTTP actions using weblist, webfetch, webview, getwebsite, and checkwebsite commands.
You can perform actions on the local harddisk using filelist, filemkdir, filecreate, fileremove, filesetpermissions, filerename, fileview, and fileedit commands.
You can show almost any window in Interarchy using the show command.
You can perform mirrors (use extreme caution!) using mirror, mirrorupload and mirrordownload commands.
You can create and control Net Disks (use caution!) using newnetdisk, findnetdisk, mount/unmountnetdisk, revealnetdisk, deletenetdisk and syncnetdisk commands.
You can also set and view Interarchy’s preferences like:
set contents of preference "UsePassive" to true set contents of preference "UsePassive:*:porthost.com:*" to false
See also the AppleScripting and Preferences sections.
A Net Disk acts as a virtual disk which you can manipulate locally on your harddisk just like any other local folder on your harddisk. While the disk is mounted, Interarchy will automatically synchronize it with your remote directory.
Net Disks are simple and easy to use, and are a good way to maintain your personal website. They are suitable when you do not need strict control over updates, but not suitable when you need to always keep your website self-consistent (such as a heavily used online shop for example). If you need more control, use a mirror instead (see the Mirroring section).
Warning: Mirroring (including Net Disks) in either direction can destroy a large number of files, so make sure you are mirroring the remote directory you expect, the local folder you expect, and always ensure you have good backups before commencing any mirroring.
To create a new Net Disk, choose Connect to Server from the File menu. This will display the Connect to Server window. Select a protocol and choose the New Net Disk action. Enter the server, path, username and password as required. The path should be the path to the directory you wish to mirror. If you are not absolutely sure, use a manual listing (choose the List action and enter the same details) and check that the listing displayed is the one containing the files and folders you wish to mirror.
Set the Mirror Mode pop-up menu according to your needs:
For maintaining a website, Mirror Upload is often the best choice. Try to avoid Mirror Both Ways if possible, since at some point you could have an unexpected change or a change on both sides and Interarchy may not do what you expect.
Also, do not forget about things like log files, forums and such, which may change frequently or unexpectedly. If you need to hide certain files from the mirroring process, there are ways to do that, see the How do I avoid mirroring certain files or folders? section.
Finally, click the toolbar button and the disk will be created. When the creation is complete and all the files have been transferred, it will appear on your desktop and is currently mounted. You can use the Net Disks collection in the Bookmarks window to unmount the disk. While the disk is mounted, Interarchy will periodically synchronize the local and remote files.
Initially the mounted disk will be on your desktop and the unmounted disk will live in Interarchy’s preferences folder, however Interarchy will remember both locations if you move the disk, so if you prefer it to live somewhere else, move it while it is mounted or unmounted as desired (both locations can be the same in which case the disk will not move when mounted or unmounted).
See also the Net Disks and Mirroring sections.
A mirror synchronizes the local and remote directories such that they are exactly identical (although you can have a few exceptions, see the How do I avoid mirroring certain files or folders? section). A mirror operates once, so you generally want to create a mirror bookmark that you can run whenever the mirror needs to happen.
Warning: Mirroring (including Net Disks) in either direction can destroy a large number of files, so make sure you are mirroring the remote directory you expect, the local folder you expect, and always ensure you have good backups before commencing any mirroring.
To create a new mirror, choose Connect to Server from the File menu, select the desired protocol (FTP, SFTP or WebDAV), and the Mirror action, then enter the server, path, username and password as required. The path should be the path to the directory you wish to mirror. If you are not absolutely sure, use a manual listing and check that the listing displayed is the one containing the files and folders you wish to mirror.
Set the Mirror Mode pop-up menu according to your needs:
You should select a local folder whose contents you intend to exactly match the remote directory. Often creating a new empty folder is the best solution (although this would clean out your remote site if you chose Mirror Upload). You should never choose your home or desktop folder, since you will almost certainly never want them mirrored to a remote directory. Remember that any files or folders in the chosen folder will potentially be uploaded to your remote directory or deleted.
If you just want to run this mirror once, you can click on the toolbar button. But normally you will want to run the mirror again from time to time to resync any changes that have been made, so instead, you probably should choose Add Bookmark from the Bookmarks menu or choose Add to Bookmarks from the action pop-up menu to add the mirror to your bookmarks. Then close the Connect to Server window and choose the mirror from the Bookmarks menu or open the Bookmarks window and double click the mirror to perform the first sync.
See also the Net Disks, Mirroring and How do I avoid mirroring certain files or folders? sections.
Normally mirroring (either directly or using a Net Disk) will make the local and remote directory exactly the same. This is often good, but occasionally you want to restrict the mirror to exclude (ignore) certain files or folders, for example you might want to Mirror Upload your website from your local Mac files, but you might want to leave the log directory alone.
Files or folders are excluded if:
Once you have created a Net Disk (see the How do I set up a Net Disk? section), you can mount or unmount it from the Net Disks collection in the Bookmarks window. Open the Bookmarks window, select the Net Disks collection and select the desired Net Disk. Click the toolbar button to mount the Net Disk (it will show up on the desktop or wherever you have chosen for its mounted location). Click the toolbar button to force an immediate sync of the Net Disk. Click the toolbar button to unmount the Net Disk (it will return to its unmounted location).
Note that you can work with the Net Disk files even while the Net Disk is not mounted. When you next mount the Net Disk it will be synchronized. This is useful if you are doing a lot of changes and do not want your site to be updated with partial changes.
Interarchy lists all available servers that are advertised with Bonjour in the Bonjour collection in the Bookmarks window. Open the Bookmarks window, select the Bonjour collection and double click the entry you are interested in.
Interarchy lists all servers that are in your Address Book in the Address Book collection in the Bookmarks window. Open the Bookmarks window, select the Address Book collection and double click the entry you are interested in.
When you launch Interarchy (or reopen it when no windows are open) it will open all the bookmarks listed in the Startup Items collection in the Bookmarks window.
To control which windows open on launch, first open the Bookmarks window, select the Startup Items collection. You can add a new bookmark (see the How do I create a bookmark? section) or enable entries using the toolbar button or disable the entries using the toolbar button.
To repeat a recent action with Interarchy you can choose it from the History menu or from the History window. The menu shows the ten most recent items while the window stores all the actions you have ever performed in Interarchy.
Note that since the history stores only URLs and actions, you cannot repeat an action that includes a reference to a local file or folder (for example, an upload or mirror). You can use a bookmark to repeat such actions.
Interarchy records the details of transactions with the remote servers in the Transcript window. This can be useful for debugging any problems with particular servers or for seeing exactly what is transpiring.
To show the Transcript window, choose Transcript from the Window menu.
If you have problems with a particular server, check the Transcript window. If you are going to report a problem to us, we will almost certainly ask you for a copy of the Transcript in order to determine what the problem might be.
Interarchy can tell you all about a host on the Internet from one simple window, the Network Host Info window, which you can open by choosing Network Host Info from the Net sub-menu in the File menu. You will need Administrative Permissions to complete the installation or you will not be able to ping the host, but you can find out the other information without administrator privileges.
Enter the host name you wish to examine, turn on the DNS checkbox if you want registrar information about the domain name, and click the button.
Interarchy will tell you the IP address of the host (or the host name of an IP address), the MX for the host (where email will be sent). It will ping the host to see if it is alive and if so how far away it is (time it takes a packet to get there) and, if requested, the registrar information such as who owns the DNS name and when it expires.
To Ping a host, choose Network Host Info from the Net sub-menu in the File menu to open the Network Host Info window. You will need Administrative Permissions to complete the installation or you will not be able to ping.
Enter the host name you wish to ping and click the button. Interarchy will ping the host to see if it is alive and if so how far away it is (time it takes a packet to get there).
Interarchy can trace the route that packets take to get to a given host. This can tell you where a network problem lies if a host you normally use is suddenly unavailable.
To open the Trace Route window, choose Trace Route from the Net sub-menu in the File menu. You will need Administrative Permissions to complete the installation or you will not be able to Trace Route.
Enter the host you wish to trace and press return or click the toolbar button. Interarchy will list all the hosts between you and the specified host, how many packets get through (out of three tries) and the time taken.
See also the How Trace Route Works section.
Interarchy has many preferences, although for the most part they are transparent preferences (for example, remembering window positions, remembering icon positions in Icon View, and so on).
You can configure the main Interarchy preferences in the Preferences window by choosing Preferences from the Interarchy menu.
You can also control the preferences from AppleScript (see the AppleScripting section) and from the command line (see the Unix Scripting section). Using these methods, you can control the preferences on a per-host basis, to allow, for example, Passive Mode set for one host and Port Mode set for another host.
See also the Preferences, AppleScripting and Unix Scripting sections.
For information on a particular menu item, see the Menus section.
For information on a particular window, see the Windows section.
For more information about a specific Interarchy feature consult the Interarchy Documentation, post a question to the Interarchy User Group, visit the Interarchy website or contact us.
We always respond to email, however email is no longer a guaranteed medium and spam filters can delete your message to us or our message to you.
For more information about a specific Interarchy feature consult the Interarchy Documentation, post a question to the Interarchy User Group, visit the Interarchy website or contact us.
We always respond to email, however email is no longer a guaranteed medium and spam filters can delete your message to us or our message to you.
See also the Links section.
