FTP publishing

[mkrauss]

Hi,

I love o-blog - thanks for your hard work! Being able to blog from org-mode may get me to actually start blogging consistently.

So I am having trouble with publishing via FTP, which is the only option on my current web host. I can publish via SSH/SFTP fine to hosts where I have an SSH account, but my web host only lets me use FTP (I know, right?)

I can browse the files on the server, create new files and edit files using Emacs with Tramp just fine.

When I try to publish from o-blog using this:

#+PUBLISH_DIR: /ftp:account@ftp.site.com:/html/blog

I get this error:

byte-code: Cannot make directory /ftp:account@ftp.site.com:/html/blog/: file already exists

If I delete that directory from the server, it gets further, but then later gives the same message. I suspect that what is going on here is that o-blog is trying to create the directory with some option that creates it only if it doesn't exist, like "mkdir -p" would, and that tramps with ftp doesn't support that option.

Any advice appreciated, Matthew

[mkrauss]

I was able to patch this with the following defun:

(defun mkdir (dir &optional parents)
  "Revised mkdir to test quick patch for FTP publishing - should
  be functionally equivilant to calling standard mkdir or
  make-directory, but work over FTP when the directory already
  exists and PARENTS is true."
  (unless (and parents (file-accessible-directory-p dir))
    (make-directory dir parents)))

Yes, I know this is a cheap hack and not a proper solution...

[renard]

Please try that patch:

@@ -490,8 +490,10 @@ A copy function COPYF and its arguments ARGS could be specified."
                    ;; file path is nil when exporting static page?
                    ;;(or filepath ".")
                    (file-name-sans-extension htmlfile)
-                   (file-name-nondirectory f)))))
-            (mkdir (file-name-directory target) t)
+                   (file-name-nondirectory f))))
+            (dir (file-name-directory target)))
+            (unless (file-accessible-directory-p dir)
+              (mkdir dir t))
             (ob-do-copy f target))))))))
 (add-hook 'o-blog-html-plugins-hook 'o-blog-publish-linked-files)

@@ -822,7 +824,9 @@ when publishing a page."

 (defun ob-write-file (file)
   "Write current buffer to FILE and create full path if necessary."
-  (mkdir (file-name-directory file) t)
+  (let ((dir (file-name-directory file)))
+    (unless (file-accessible-directory-p dir)
+      (mkdir dir t)))
   (let ((coding-system-for-write
     (with-current-buffer
         (ob:blog-buffer BLOG)

and let me know

[mkrauss]

Hmm... Not sure how to apply this? I tried pasting this in to a file (patch.patch) and running "patch o-blog.el patch.patch" and it said it was malformed at line 14. A few other variations after consulting the man page also failed. I may be being stupid - haven't used patch in ages.

So anyhow, I applied it manually, copying and pasting the lines in to o-blog.el and deleting the other lines.

Result: no change, still doesn't work, same error.

[renard]

Yes a manual patching might be necessary. BTW did you reload the o-blog.el file?

[mkrauss]

Yes, reloaded Emacs entirely

[renard]

Ok The problem about modifying a standard function is that o-blog won't be portable anymore.

If you still need to create your own mkdir function then please leave it in your configuration files.

[mkrauss]

Sure, of course.

I think this is really a bug with tramp (or perhaps ange-ftp?) I'll try and report it there.

In the mean time, if you do want to add a workaround to O-Blog you could use my defun but just call it "safe-mkdir" and change the two places mkdir is called...