You can run yostupload in any directory within your local copy of your web site. It will look recursively toward root until it finds a configuration file (.YostUploadRoot). Now yostupload knows your location within the local hierarchy, knows your upload preferences, and knows how to get to your server, so you don't have to specify a bunch of command arguments to get the job done. yostupload uses rsync or ftp to do the transfers. Also, you can use yostupload -l to ssh directly to the corresponding folder on the server.

Example:

1 Z% cd ~/website/computers 2 Z% yostupload -v mvredir mkredir [ cd '/Users/neddie/website/' ] [ rsync --rsh 'ssh -l neddie' -rRHLtp --bwlimit=3 --partial --progress -v computers/mvredir computers/mkredir DreamHost.com:public_html ] building file list ... done computers/ computers/mkredir/ computers/mkredir/index.html computers/mvredir/ computers/mvredir/index.html sent 24541 bytes received 64 bytes 5467.78 bytes/sec total size is 24287 speedup is 0.99 3 Z% yostupload -lv yostupload: examining current directory [ ssh -t -l neddie DreamHost.com "cd 'public_html'/'computers' && exec $0 -l" ] server 1 Z% pwd /home/neddie/public_html/computers server 2 Z% exit Connection to DreamHost.com closed. 4 Z% yostupload -f /Users/neddie/website/.YostUploadRoot 5 Z%

Usage summary

Usage:	yostupload [ -d ] [ -v ] [ -n ] [ -r rootFile ] [ --rsync-args args ] [ path ... ]
	yostupload -l [ -r rootFile ] [ path ]
	yostupload -f [ -r rootFile ] [ path ]
	yostupload -u [ -r rootFile ] [ path ]

path defaults to the current directory.

Normally uploads unless -d option specifies download instead.

Or: use the -l option to ssh to the server. The remote shell’s current directory will correspond to path.

Or: use the -f option to output path to rootFile.

Or: use the -u option to output the URL to path.

All path arguments (files and/or folders) must be within a folder hierarchy that serves as a local staging area for a folder on the server. yostupload uploads (or downloads) everything in paths between their corresponding locations in the local hierarchy and the server hierarchy.

The root of the local hierarchy is identified by the fact that it contains a file called “.YostUploadRoot”. yostupload executes this file and expects it to output key-value pairs, as in this example:

protocol rsync
command /usr/local/bin/rsync
host upload.yourhost.com
url http://yourhost.com
port 12345
user neddie
dir public_html
rsync-args-up --bwlimit=3
finishUp echo Upload succeeded $(date)

Notes on the settings:

• protocol can be rsync, ftp, or sftp (default is rsync).
• command is optional and defaults to the protocol name.
• host is a domain name or IP address with no port appended; or, if protocol is rsync, host may be omitted for uploading to a folder on the same host.
• url is optional; defaults to http://$host; used only by the -u option.
• port is optional.
• dir is the path on the server; default is your home directory.
• rsync-args, rsync-args-up, and rsync-args-down are optional; if present, these arguments are passed to rsync for up/download after the standard upload args -rRHtp or download args -rRHLtp. Don't use --rsh here.
• finishUp is a command to be run via ssh on host after a successful rsync upload. For example, after uploading crontab, this installs that crontab file on host and reports back the result:
      finishUp crontab crontab ; crontab -l

Use rsync if possible; ftp and sftp copy with world-readable permissions, and they aren't smart (like rsync is) about transferring only what needs to be transferred. The rsync command sets permissions on the server to match those in the local hierarchy, so when the destination is a public web site, local dirs should be searchable by all and local files should be readable by all; yostupload warns if some permissions are too restrictive.

The -v option shows the rsync, ftp, or sftp command actually used and puts the command itself into verbose mode.

The -n option sets -v and refrains from actually running the command.

The -r rootFile option specifies a different root filename instead of .YostUploadRoot.

Unfortunately, older versions of rsync can’t download more than one thing at a time, so the script as is won’t try, but the script provides for this if you want to modify the script.

Notes

Yostupload works best with rsync, a shell command found on linux, BSD, Mac OS X, etc. For one thing, rsync transfers only things that have changed. For another thing, it uses a secure protocol, yet you can arrange things so you don’t have to enter your password every time—this works without storing the password in a local file. If your web hosting service is doesn’t support rsync for uploads and downloads, you might want to consider switching to DreamHost, which does.

Here’s a sample .YostUploadRoot file:

#!/bin/sh echo host yourhost.com echo user neddie echo dir public_html echo rsync-args-up --bwlimit=3

Download

Here’s where to download the yostupload program, which is implemented as a zsh (Z-Shell) script.

http://Yost.com/computers/yostupload/index.html - this page
2005-07-21 Created
2005-07-22 Modified
2005-07-27 Modified to make --rsync-args work
2005-07-20 rsync -H arg added
2005-08-02 2.0 now can download (rsync only)
2005-08-03 2.1 bug fix with root-level download
2005-08-03 2.2 allow multiple-file downloads
2005-08-13 added example .YostUploadRoot file
2005-12-14 2.3 added -l option
2006-02-13 2.4 make it silent if no -v option
2006-09-06 2.5 added rsync-args to .YostUploadRoot file
2007-01-21 2.6 added rsync -L arg for upload
2007-04-26 2.8 make the -l option cd on the server
2007-09-30 3.0 added -r rootFile, finishUp, and port
2007-10-05 3.1 added -f
2008-05-11 3.2 added -u; fixed bug with remote cd used by -l and finishUp