Total Commander

Probably not - TC sends the FEAT (feature list) command to check whether the server supports one of the following commands:
XSHA1
XMD5
MD5
XCRC
If not, then TC cannot compare by content, sorry. Downloading all files just for comparing isn't an option, I'm sure that I would get very bad reactions because of the traffic...

ghisler(Author) wrote:Probably not - TC sends the FEAT (feature list) command to check whether the server supports one of the following commands:
XSHA1
XMD5
MD5
XCRC
If not, then TC cannot compare by content, sorry. Downloading all files just for comparing isn't an option, I'm sure that I would get very bad reactions because of the traffic...

ahh, to bad. That's a pretty much show stopper for me

Is there a possibility to write addon to achieve this functionality ? I am very much familiar with Delphi

It's possible to write some extensions for IIS FTP (e.g. custom authentication or logging). But custom commands do not seem possible. You could watch for them using logging extension, but there's no way to send the reply back, so it's useless.
Different FTP server is the solution.

ghisler(Author) wrote: If not, then TC cannot compare by content, sorry. Downloading all files just for comparing isn't an option, I'm sure that I would get very bad reactions because of the traffic...

I understand that cannot expect that you will implement every feature that I can think of, but I just wont to explain my problem. I have ASP.NET web application that is installed on 50+ web sites, and it's a frequent task that I have to update some content/binaries on web server for just one site. I am using TC for that, while automatic update/deployment would be far more better solution, for now that is not an option and I am stuck with FTP, and *very* important information is that content is different. I can't just copy something from dev machine to server, I have to check what is different and why. I know that this is a very bad practice but that application is in beta release and some people that are contributing the content are not using source control.

That's my situation, and I really think that I am not alone with this problem. IMO traffic and bandwidth are small problem for most of your users. But you can implement this feature optionally, just enable the "by content" check box (speaking for UI, I am aware that you have to program additional functionality, downloading from ftp and then compare).

And thank you for this wonderfull program, I really love TC and would hate to use some other tool for this task because TC is extension of my fingers

Sob wrote:It's possible to write some extensions for IIS FTP (e.g. custom authentication or logging). But custom commands do not seem possible. You could watch for them using logging extension, but there's no way to send the reply back, so it's useless.
Different FTP server is the solution.

Yes !! I will install some other FTP server, thanks ! I don't know why I didn't think of that, it seems that developing in almost exclusive MS environment is affecting one's mind

I was thinking to use Filezilla, presumably Filezilla suports these commands.

FileZilla doesn't support these commands either. It's author is strongly opposed to adding anything non-standard (not formally specified in RFC). New command called HASH is being prepared, but it still has a long way to go before being accepted as standard and implemented in servers and clients.

Sob wrote:FileZilla doesn't support these commands either. It's author is strongly opposed to adding anything non-standard (not formally specified in RFC). New command called HASH is being prepared, but it still has a long way to go before being accepted as standard and implemented in servers and clients.

After some googling I can't find free ftp server for windows that suport some of this commands, so must go for shareware ones, I think that I would buy Gene6 FTP server.

Btw, why do you need to compare by content? Now that TC uses MLSD, it can compare by date/time reliably - of course the server has to support MFMT, MDTM or SITE UTIME to set the file time on the server. FileZilla server does support MFMT.

ghisler(Author) wrote:Btw, why do you need to compare by content? Now that TC uses MLSD, it can compare by date/time reliably - of course the server has to support MFMT, MDTM or SITE UTIME to set the file time on the server. FileZilla server does support MFMT.

honestly , I don't know what theese acronims are stand for, don't have time now to investigate, I solved my problem with Cerberus FTP server. That server supports XCRC and I can compare by content.

MLSD = machine list, standardized method to get file list
The other 3 commands are used to set the time of an uploaded file on the server. Support for one of the is sufficient.

The server shows as a reply to the FEAT command whether it supports one of these features.

You could open a VPN link and use SyncDir; may be quicker than FTP.

bop sprengers wrote:You could open a VPN link and use SyncDir; may be quicker than FTP.

speed is really not an issue since I have 10/10 mbit connection to the internet