Lost display of directories on remote machine

I'm using WinSCP with Putty to access files on a UNIX network. Things were working fine until some recent upgrades to the UNIX system. I was asked to "reauthenticate" (or something, I can't quite recall), which I did, but now the WinSCP remote listing panel (Norton mode) does not show the names of the UNIX directories. Folder symbols appear, but with no name, and it is not possible to change into the directories. Files on the UNIX network are still displayed correctly (with the name), and transfer of files to and from the home directory on the UNIX system works correctly.

I'm using the latest version of WinSCP on WinXPPro. I've uninstalled and reinstalled WinSCP, and the problem persists. Thanks for any suggestions.

David Walkey

What is your server (manufacturer, version...)? Do you see the same problem when using other SFTP clients?

Your problem seems to be similar to one described in this topic.

If you want you may post a low-level session log, but anyway, this looks like server-side problem.

Thanks for the reply. It isn't quite the same problem, because there are as many folder lines in the SCP3 window as there are directories in my UNIX account, and all the other information (modified, permissions, etc) is displayed, the folder symbols just don't show the names beside them, and double clicking doesn't change to that directory.

Nobody else accessing the UNIX network with PuTTY/SCP3 is having this problem, and my UNIX account directory names were visible (and the directories accessible) when I accessed my UNIX account through PuTTY/SCP3 from a different PC today, so I'm pretty sure it is a local problem on my home PC. I tried reinstalling SCP3 again but the problem persists. Since I've run out of ideas, I'll just transfer files to my home directory on UNIX (which still works) then move the files around manually.

David Walkey wrote:

Thanks for the reply. It isn't quite the same problem, because there are as many folder lines in the SCP3 window as there are directories in my UNIX account, and all the other information (modified, permissions, etc) is displayed, the folder symbols just don't show the names beside them, and double clicking doesn't change to that directory.

No it seems like very similar problem, have you read my last post there?:

martin wrote:

I have simulated your server using the log and I do not see empty listing. I see 21 directory entries, but with no names. Is this what you see?

Nobody else accessing the UNIX network with putty/SCP3 is having this problem, and my UNIX account directory names were visible (and the directories accessible) when I accessed my UNIX account through putty/SCP3 from a different PC today

Were you using the same version of WinSCP? Also as I have asked already, do you see the same problem with other clients? Like PSFTP?

so I'm pretty sure it is a local problem on my home PC.

I have no idea how can anything on your local PC affects this. Only maybe if you are using different version of WinSCP.

First of all, thanks for taking the time to respond to this problem, I appreciate that.

Apologies: I didn't read that thread you quoted far enough. In fact that is exactly the problem I have: directories seem to create a folder symbol, and the permission, etc, is OK, but the names are missing (and double clicking doesn't change into the directory).

The version of SCP3 that worked was 3.3 build 177. I don't know what version I was using when the problem started, because I uninstalled it and installed the latest version (3.7.4 build 371) assuming that would fix the problem. If 3.3/177 is still around somewhere I could try installing that and see if the problem goes away.

I haven't tried PSFTP, but I have configured putty to allow reading and writing of email from Outlook on the PC, i.e. through the UNIX network mail service via tunnelling, and that seems to work fine. I can try PSFTP if you think it is useful.

Thanks.

The version of SCP3 that worked was 3.3 build 177. I don't know what version I was using when the problem started, because I uninstalled it and installed the latest version (3.7.4 build 371) assuming that would fix the problem. If 3.3/177 is still around somewhere I could try installing that and see if the problem goes away.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/winscp/files/
Let me know if downgrade fixes it.

I haven't tried PSFTP, but I have configured putty to allow reading and writing of email from Outlook on the PC, i.e. through the UNIX network mail service via tunnelling, and that seems to work fine. I can try PSFTP if you think it is useful.

I do not know if it is useful. PSFTP takes file name from different source. So it may work even if WinSCP does not. But if you find time, you can try it.

Well, mostly good news. Our sysadmin asked me to email him a log file from running SCP3 on my PC (where the problem exists), and he noticed that SCP3 seemed to be getting upset by the file listing format, which is modified by my alias of 'ls' to { /bin/ls -F $*; } in my .bashrc. I removed this alias, and now both the older and newest versions work fine.

But here is the really strange thing: even the old version of SCP3, which displayed my UNIX account directories properly when I tried it from the different PC, doesn't work on my home PC when I leave that .bashrc alias in. But I only removed the alias today, so the older version of SCP3 was working fine with that .bashrc alias in place when I tried the older SCP3 version on the different PC a few days ago?!?!?!? Even the sysadmin doesn't understand that. Perhaps since our UNIX machines don't all have exactly the same OS versions the connection from the other PC may have just happened to be to a machine which had a different version of 'ls' whose listing SCP3 could parse?

Anyway, it is working again, and the problem was the alias of 'ls' in the .bashrc. Thanks for your time on this problem.

But here is the really strange thing: even the old version of SCP3, which displayed my UNIX account directories properly when I tried it from the different PC, doesn't work on my home PC when I leave that .bashrc alias in. But I only removed the alias today, so the older version of SCP3 was working fine with that .bashrc alias in place when I tried the older SCP3 version on the different PC a few days ago?!?!?!? Even the sysadmin doesn't understand that. Perhaps since our UNIX machines don't all have exactly the same OS versions the connection from the other PC may have just happened to be to a machine which had a different version of 'ls' whose listing SCP3 could parse?

Are you sure you have used SFTP protocol with the old version of WinSCP? Note that SFTP is the default only since 3.5. Until then SCP was the default. With SCP, WinSCP removes by default all aliases on startup. Because with SCP, WinSCP calles 'ls' command directly. However I quite surprised that SFTP server can get confused by the alias as well. I'm not sure if I haven't asked already: what is your SSH server?

Hmmmm. It is entirely possible that the protocol setting was different when I checked the problem using the other machine. I did mention the server in a previous post, a solaris 9 ssh, I think.

But I'm confused about something. In the following, I'm just referring to my home PC and the newest version of SCP3:

- I put the 'ls' alias back into my .bashrc file in UNIX
- With the protocol set to "SCP", the directory names are not displayed (the original problem)
- With the protocol set to SFTP, it works fine, the directory names are displayed.

I must be misinterpreting your post, because this seems like the opposite of what should happen. If SCP calls 'ls' directly, why does the alias cause a problem when the protocol is SCP?

Incidentally, for the benefit of a naive user like me (and any others who might be reading this thread), is there some reason to use SCP vs SFTP? I checked the FAQ and didn't see anything there.

- I put the 'ls' alias back into my .bashrc file in UNIX
- With the protocol set to "SCP", the directory names are not displayed (the original problem)
- With the protocol set to SFTP, it works fine, the directory names are displayed.

This what I would expect. But from your previous posts I've understood the opposite. Maybe I've also mistaken your problem with someone else's problem :-)

If SCP calls 'ls' directly, why does the alias cause a problem when the protocol is SCP?

It is natural, isn't it?

Incidentally, for the benefit of a naive user like me (and any others who might be reading this thread), is there some reason to use SCP vs SFTP? I checked the FAQ and didn't see anything there.

I prefer SFTP. Read more about the protocols.

Actually I had not tried changing SFTP/SCP before, I was only using SCP.

I think I'm misunderstanding what you mean by "calling ls directly". I thought "directly" meant that the alias was not used, but obviously this is not the case.

Thanks for the link. Since SFTP works, that is now what I'll use.

Thanks for the help on this topic.

Version 3.7 always diplays the files being compared using
the synchronize command. Whereas 3.8 does not display the files being compared.

The problem being that one does not have any indication of progress on larger subdirectories being being synchronized.

I've tested this on several workstations and find the behavior to be the same, synchronizing the same server.

Am I missing a switch or a setting somewhere in 3.8 to enable display during synchronize?

@dsamson: 3.8 should display synchronization checklist window before actual synchronization as long as you check Preview changes.

Looking at Options > Environment and Transfer panels,
I'm unable to find the "Preview Changes" control, I'm
looking at Version 3.8.2 (build 330)

Please advise

@dsamson: It's on Synchronization dialog.

I've now set the the that adjustment the Synchronization dialog still when I trigger the Synchronize from the .CMD file I still don't see the files displayed, even though I'm logging into the same session, as adjusted via the GUI.

Any further suggestions?

Or perhaps I should try scripting the GUI from a CMD file somehow although I've not done that yet and am not sure it is possible.

Presently I'm using the following syntax
Any suggestions welcome.

I haven't known that you refer to scripting. In scripting, there is no option to have the confirmation before actual synchronization.

Confirmation isn't needed in this instance but it is desirable to be able to view what files are being compared as they are being compared on screen.

Previous versions would scroll/list the files being compared by on screen as line items such as

Local 'C:\JPG\Image1.jpg' => Remote 'JPG\Image1.jpg'...
Local 'C:\JPG\Image2.jpg' => Remote 'JPG\Image2.jpg'...
Local 'C:\JPG\Image3.jpg' => Remote 'JPG\Image3.jpg'...

and so on

With 3.8 all I get is status on the directory

Comparing 'C:\JPG\ with 'JPG\'

..and no feedback as to what files it is comparing.

The problem is if you are synchronizing a large folder or set of folders there is no feedback as to the progress of the sync, and it can appear as being hung up.

Any suggestions welcome.

I have no suggestion. I'll try to improve that in the next version.

This issue has been added to the tracker:
Issue 73 – Improve feedback during directory comparison before synchronization