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Adam Kalsey

This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.

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FTP filters

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7 Jul 2003

Like most Web developers, I use FTP a lot. I also use CVS to manage the files on the sites I build. So here’s where the problem comes in. CVS creates a few files and directories alongside the directories and files that make up my Web site. So when I upload a site via FTP, there are CVS and .cvsignore files all over the site.

Currently, to get around this, I run a CVS Export command to make a clean copy of the site, without any CVS directories or files. I then upload that copy of the site to the server. There are several problems with this. When I use the Tortoise CVS client to run the export, empty directories are not exported. Empty directories are often cache directories for whatever application I’m developing. The files within them aren’t stored in CVS, so the export doesn’t end up creating the directories. I have to go and add them in manually.

I also hate to run an export just to get the latest copies of two or three directories that changed. It’s easier to just copy the files over from my projects directory.

So what I need is an FTP program that will let me filter the files that get uploaded. Anything called CVS or .cvsignore wouldn’t get uploaded. Anyone got an FTP client that does this?

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