New SFTP plugin available now

[Flint]

ghisler(Author)
Does the plugin support connections with empty password? I tried, but the plugin fails to login:

Error: Authentication by password failed!

Putty in Windows and ssh in openSUSE connect correctly to the same server with the same login and empty password. Also, the SFTP plugin connects correctly to another server where non-empty password is used. Is empty password the source of the problem, or anything else? SSH server is OpenSSH 5.2p1, openSUSE 11.2.

[ghisler(Author)]

No idea, I have never tried it with an empty password. It defeats the purpose of using SFTP.

[Boofo]

2ghisler(Author)
Sure it has to and it does.
But as I said before curl.exe works with 7.19.7 libs, but sftp plugin doesn't.
May be problem can be solved by rebuilding plugin with latest libssh/libcurl headers/libraries... Just a thought.

Thanks a lot anyway. I'm using 7.19.4 libraries and all works pretty fine for me.

The newest version (7.20.1) now works fine with SCP enabled. Just thought you might want to know.

[Flint]

It defeats the purpose of using SFTP.

Sometimes it's just a remote machine that does not contain any secure information. SSH is the most common way of accessing remote Unix/Linux machines, not because it's so secure but just because it's preinstalled everywhere and easy to use. So, it would be useful if the plugin supported empty passwords too.

[Sob]

The newest version (7.20.1) now works fine with SCP enabled.

This is why I think that plugin should check and require some minimum version of libssh2. If there are bugs in older version, user will suffer when using it and he might not even realize that he needs to update the library. But if plugin clearly said that new library version is needed, user would know that he has to update. Result would be better expirience for user and less complaints and bug reports that aren't really bugs in plugin.
Forcing the user to upgrade might not always be the best idea in general, e.g. requiring some minimal Windows version. But this is not the case here. At this point, requiring newer library version does not leave anyone behind. Where old version worked, the new one will too. It might change someday, but it's true now.
Btw, I really admire Mr. Ghisler's dedication to backward compatibility, did you know that even latest TC 7.55 works just fine under NT 3.51? :) I guess that even this plugin might work there, but I can't access network neighbourhood there. No, I don't really need it (I wonder if anyone does), I played with it just for fun. :)

---
Empty passwords support:

http://web.hisoftware.cz/sob/download/sftpplug_src097beta-emptypass.patch

[Flint]

Empty passwords support:

Thanks, seems to work fine.

In case someone else wants to test but does not have Visual C++, here's the compiled WFX:
http://flint-inc.ru/Temp/sftpplug097emptypass.rar

[sqa_wizard]

SFTP plugin (v0.97 beta). Having said that it's not possible for me to download or upload files that have a filename with a space in it using SCP mode to transfer files. Normal transfer mode works fine.

Indeed the OpenSSH SCP functions don't seem to be able to handle spaces in names, sorry.

May you have to doublequote the filenames for the function calls ?

[Sob]

It's the funny thing, double quoting is done now and it's the exact reason, why filenames with spaces can't be accessed using SCP with newer versions of libssh2. They fixed the quoting bug in library and now when quoted filename is received, the functions take the quotes as part of filename, so it can't work.

Skip quoting in sftpplug and it will work again:
http://web.hisoftware.cz/sob/download/sftpplug_src097beta-noscpquote.patch

The good news is, that the active development of libssh2 is going now, so workarounds like this should not be required in future. Just report library bugs to it's authors.

[sqa_wizard]

2Sob: Thanks a lot for resolving this mystic behavior.

Do you have a compiled WFX for all non C++ developers like me ?

This way I can use it use it until libssh2 can handle it ...

[Boofo]

2Sob

Yes, a compiled version would be great, sir.

[Sob]

This way I can use it until libssh2 can handle it ...

Libssh2 handles it fine now. By "workarounds like this" I meant quoting done in sftpplug that was added because of bug in old libssh2 and it's stalled developement.

--
I'm not sure if it's the best idea to have unofficial versions floating around, especially when the original author happily incorporates suggested changes into official one. But if you really can't wait and must have it now, here you go:
http://web.hisoftware.cz/sob/download/unofficial_sftpplug_src097plusbeta.zip

[sqa_wizard]

Well, I tried SFTP Plugin 0.97 beta and libssh2.dll 1.2.5 from 7.20.1 libcurl SSL.
=> copy of filenames with spaces still fails

... but I will give your version a try and come back with the results.

[Boofo]

2sqa_wizard

But it only fails with SCP turned on, right?

[sqa_wizard]

But it only fails with SCP turned on, right?

Sure, without SCP it works fine (with and w/o spaces)

[Boofo]

I'll be looking forward to your test results then.