SFTP: Problem with resolution of symlinks

[chrroe]

Hi there!

Some issues with build 440:

The resolution of symbolic links while accessing servers via SFTP is a kind of broken.
First take a look at the following directory listing (it's a SuSE Enterprise Server 9):

server:/bin # ll
total 6244
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     4096 Apr  3  2007 .
drwxr-xr-x  19 root root     4096 Oct 11 13:00 ..
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin      3136 Nov 17  2005 arch
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     96184 Jun 30  2004 ash
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin    600713 Jun 30  2004 ash.static
lrwxrwxrwx   1 bin  bin         4 Mar 15  2007 awk -> gawk
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     17198 May  4  2005 basename
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin    448312 Dec 15  2004 bash
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     21526 May  4  2005 cat
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     38592 May  4  2005 chgrp
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     38280 May  4  2005 chmod
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     42603 May  4  2005 chown
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin      4680 Jun 30  2004 chvt
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     65798 May  4  2005 cp
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     64080 Nov 17  2005 cpio
lrwxrwxrwx   1 bin  bin         4 Mar 15  2007 csh -> tcsh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     47328 May  4  2005 date
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     35465 May  4  2005 dd
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin      5136 Jun 30  2004 deallocvt
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     38984 May  4  2005 df
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin      4628 Nov 17  2005 dmesg
lrwxrwxrwx   1 bin  bin         8 Mar 15  2007 dnsdomainname -> hostname
lrwxrwxrwx   1 bin  bin         8 Mar 15  2007 domainname -> hostname
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     49680 Jun 30  2004 dumpkeys
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     18688 May  4  2005 echo
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     51052 Jun 30  2004 ed
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin        38 Jun 30  2004 egrep
-rwsr-x---   1 root audio   42380 Jun 30  2004 eject
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     15888 May  4  2005 false
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin      4320 Jun 30  2004 fgconsole
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin        38 Jun 30  2004 fgrep
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     32008 Jun 30  2004 fillup
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     23028 Jun 30  2004 fuser
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin    221395 May 23  2005 gawk
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin      5284 Jun 30  2004 getkeycodes
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin    126348 Jun 30  2004 grep
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     24492 Nov 17  2005 guessfstype
-rwxr-xr-x   3 bin  bin     60431 Nov 17  2005 gunzip
-rwxr-xr-x   3 bin  bin     60431 Nov 17  2005 gzip
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin      9384 Dec  8  2004 hostname
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     18551 Jun 30  2004 initviocons
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin       339 Jun 30  2004 ipg
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin      5904 Jun 30  2004 kbd_mode
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin      6092 Jun 30  2004 kbdrate
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     21895 May  4  2005 kill
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin    208453 Apr  4  2005 ksh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     29722 May  4  2005 ln
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     70032 Jun 30  2004 loadkeys
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     14764 Jun 30  2004 loadunimap
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin      8180 Nov 17  2005 logger
-r-xr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     38244 Nov 17  2005 login
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     90559 May  4  2005 ls
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin      8421 Nov 17  2005 lsmod
lrwxrwxrwx   1 bin  bin        16 Mar 15  2007 lsmod.old -> /sbin/insmod.old
lrwxrwxrwx   1 bin  bin        13 Mar 15  2007 mail -> /usr/bin/nail
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     14412 Jun 30  2004 mapscrn
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     27580 May  4  2005 mkdir
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin  bin     25320 May  4  2005 mknod
 
...

Now take a look at the first screenshot, there you can see, how Cirrus has parsed the directory. There are 11 entries displayed as symlinked folders. But they are files! For example the first entry awk -> gawk .
When you try to double-click such a entry an error is displayed in the log-section: Unable to load awk: No such file



Some symbolic links are parsed correctly, for example lsmod.old -> /sbin/insmod.old.
This one can be opened, but is not marked as symlink.

The second screenshot shows how WinSCP has parsed the directory (all correct).



Two more things I stumbled upon:

• Although I've selected "Save password" when connecting to that server I repeatedly get asked for it when I use the green arrow for "Full Refresh".
• Sorting a folder-view for Owner or Group crashes Cirrus.

Bye
Christoph

[Aaron]

Link Resolution

This is actually expected behavior. Under FTP Profiles, Listings tab, there is a Link Resolution section for Fast and Simple. Fast will not detect files unless they have an extension. (like .old). Simple should work for you. You will need to restart the program after changing the setting for it to take affect.

We currently don't have an overlay for symlinked files (to give them a different appearance from files).

The group sort crash will be fixed in the next release.

How do you create your ftp profiles? When I type in sftp://user@address/ and then when prompted, enter the password and Save is already checked, it seems to save it just fine. I am encountering other odd issues, just not the one you describe.

[chrroe]

... Screenshots added ...


Bye
Christoph

[Aaron]

Simple Mode

If you select Simple Mode, and restart the application (all instances), do the symlinks correctly identify? Or are you still having problems? There is no overlay for the files, currently. They will look just like files.

Do you have additional info on how you created your ftp profiles without remembered passwords?

I found other odd behavior/bug when testing this, where it would not accept changes to a saved password profile, but not the "repeatedly get asked for it" issue.

[chrroe]

Hi!

Selecting Simple and restarting did the trick! I hope the need to retsart Cirrus will go away in the next releases .
Of course it would be very nice when symlinked files get marked in someway ...



Later I deleted FtpProfiles.xml to have a clean environment. Then I tried two ways in order to connect to my SFTP-Server:

- Entering the URL sftp://user@server in folder-viewer.
- Using the Browse FTP Site... dialog-box.

In both cases I'm re-prompted for a password in the Keyboard Authorization dialog-box. And again and again when using Full Refresh.


Bye
Christoph

[Zoë]

Christoph,

If Cirrus is showing the "Keyboard Authorization" dialog that means that the server has explicitly told us to ask the user questions. We try to only use keyboard interactive authentication if password-based and public key-based authentications fail. Can you post a copy of the log that shows the connection negotiation?

[chrroe]

Well, the whole log is visible in the first screenshot. The keyboard authentication box is displayed between the lines "Server key [..." and "Authentication successful."

Funny thing: When I enter nothing and press the "Cancel" button in that box, the connection gets established, too. Only when I enter a wrong password it fails.

Using WinSCP (IMHO the reference of SFTP-clients in the Windows world), I don't get asked for the password since it is saved there in a profile.


Bye
Christoph

[chrroe]

[ Annoying "Keyboard Authorization" dialog ]

The described problem is still present in Build 443!

Bye
Christoph

[chrroe]

Annoying "Keyboard Authorization" dialog

[ Annoying "Keyboard Authorization" dialog ]

The described problem is still present in Build 443!

Bye
Christoph

Still present in Build 445

[chrroe]

Still present in Build 446.

(I think about collecting my observed SFTP issues and check back this thread when build 450 or higher is out)

[Chris]

Christoph,

Thanks for your patience with this problem. I'm trying to figure out why this is happening.

Please send me a copy of the "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" file from the system you're connecting to so I can duplicate the ssh settings on my own system. You can email it to [email protected].

[Chris]

I responded to Christoph by email, but for anyone else following this thread, I did reproduce this problem once I matched my SSHD server configuration with Christoph's. I logged this in our bug tracker and we'll work on a fix.

[chrroe]

YEAH!
The issue with the annoying password dialog seems to be finally fixed in build 457. I will check in my job environment after my holidays, too.

Thanks a lot

Bye
Christoph