Published 2024-10-24
tag(s): #emacs #programming
Just now at work I needed to get some files via SFTP, and I found out that Emacs' TRAMP has
support for this,
but only works in
Linux. There is an alternative psftp connection
method that uses plink,
but in my case I get an error from the server, stating that that it won't allow interactive
sessions.
What I found out though is that Windows has an sftp.exe as part of the nowadays
included OpenSSH (there's also an sftp.exe in Git's files, which I haven't tried. Yet?).
And using that and a cheatsheet for SFTP commands I was able to download my zip, easily.
A normal person would call this done, and a saner person would have also downloaded FileZilla
or WinSCP to solve it. Since I am neither, I am feverishly thinking[1]
that I should write an Emacs package to help fellow Emacs-on-Windows-need-SFTP-access users
with this problem.
That is about three people in the whole world, on a good day.
This is how most, I would even say all of my open source code came to be. I have a problem, or there's something that doesn't quite work, and I feel like writing a solution. That's all the motivation I need.
Even in this case, I acknowledge the potential audience is tiny, but that's not a deterrent
:)
I would say it helps when it is an Emacs package, because I know the small OS editor
will be around for a long, long, long time. And even if I don't update the code in many years,
it will still work.
Heck, it is more likely that Windows doesn't include OpenSSH anymore AND we
move away from using Git, than an Emacs package using only built-ins needing a code update 10
years from now.