Re: [Babeldoc-devel] On a brighter note (SFTP Scanner Impl) ...

[David K. <dav...@al...>]

Hi Dejan!

Dejan Krsmanovic wrote:

> David,
> how difficult is to extend FtpScanner to use SFTP
> protocol? In my opinion it would be better to have one
> scanner with one or more new config options that would
> enable SFTP support than having new Scanner with
> similiar functionality... 

I contemplated doing that at first, but then I got caught
up with the inner workings of the SFTP protocol, sessions,
channels and whatnot, and it was about then that I began
wandering off from the original FTP scanner structure and
more-or-less arrived at something rather (a bit) different.

Then again, I guess it would be possible to refactor both
in one sweep and make them parts of the same whole. That
would indeed be pretty nice, especially as the below...

> On Commons VFS, I really like that project and I am
> hoping that it will leave sandbox soon. In fact, I had
> plans to implement VfsScanner/pipeline stage that
> would enable using one scanner/stage for all file
> systems supported by Commons VFS.

...sounds *very* interesting indeed. A VfsScanner with
(perhaps?) VfsReader and VfsWriter (e.g) PipelineStage
implementations would be very useful indeed. I like it!

(The Jakarta SFTP Vfs is a bit innefficient in its use
  of channels, though - only a pool of one active and one
  idle - one of my changes was to refactor that detail in
  an effort to make especially the recursive scanning more
  speedy. Then again, that is probably a consequence from
  the different underlying filesystem abstraction of the
  Vfs as compared to the more connection-oriented scanner
  code. Can probably be re-designed as well. We'll see.)

Anyway:
- I need the code together with 1.2 for production use,
   but there is no problem for me doing that with this
   particular scanner in my own module for some time.
- Noone else has expressed any immediate need for an
   SFTP scanner at this time, so there is no rush...
- I like your idea (very much) regarding VFS support
   more generally in Babeldoc, and I would be interested
   in contributing code to that end during 1.3 timeframe.

> I guess it is time for 1.3 CVS branch. Or this could
> be included in 1.2? Anyway, I really think it is time
> for you to become commiter! Bruce, we should put David
> to developer list regardless his decision! ;-)  He can
> say yes later! 

Uhm...heh... *blush* :-)

> Dejan

/David