Vote for which file transfer tools

[richelbilderbeek]

There are many tools for file transfer, such as (incomplete list) scp, sftp, rsync, FileZilla, WinSCP, Cyberduck, etc.

The options suggested were:

• scp
• sftp
• rsync
• Gui based tools
  • Filezilla
  • Winscp
  • Cyberduck

Which ones will this course use? All?

[richelbilderbeek]

Me and @bclaremar decided this in a meeting yesterday, but the meeting was fast so he may reconsider later.

These are the tools we intend to teach:

• FileZilla first, as this is close to the experience of most learners, assuming most learners use a desktop environment
• rsync second, as this seems to be one of the best and flexible tools, the only one (?) for sensitive data transfer between NAISS HPC centers

If Björn changes his mind, this would be my vote. Only FileZilla would be fine too :-)

[bclaremar]

Could agree, but will mention it in the meeting

[VRehnberg]

Asked locally after the meeting and we stopped recommending FileZilla a few years ago because they bundle adware with the installation (you can opt out, but doubt all users are mindful enough to do it).

Some other opinions I have:

• Could be nice if you could cover scp as well
• A single GUI tool is enough, but if WinSCP sufficiently better for windows users I agree that it might be worth covering two tools

Some out of scope things, but still worth noting:

• Transferring from webservices (Google Drive, AWS, etc.) is something that we get requests for from time to time
• Rclone is another very capable command line tool that covers a lot more than all the others mentioned, but I find it to be painful to configure.

[bclaremar]

Thanx for interesting input!