TextMaestro™

Example 6: Work with Multiple Remote Hosts

Suppose current session has some files mapped to remote system host121.

We plan to make incremental changes in these files and compile them in multiple systems, say host121 and bonst. To do so, we will need to map one set of these files to host121 (see above) and another to bonst so that as we make changes in a file, it will be transferred to both remote hosts.

Right click on the selected files and follow the selection as shown below: (i.e., Work on file-list... > Mirror copies, or simply hit Ctrl+D).

Mirror copies of the selected files will be created as shown below:

Note that the second set of files in the list are still mapped to host121.

Hit File Attributes button to open File Attributes dialog as shown below:

File attributes of the second set of files:

Change the attributes as desired.

At this stage the second set files will display the remote host bonst. Note that each file has two items in this list, one mapped to host121, and the other to bonst.

Both copies of each file are pointing to the local file residing in C:\Test\. If you now modify any of these files both of its copies will assume 'locally dirty' icon.

Suppose we have modified the second set of items. Since the first set and second set are pointing to the same six files in the local disk, all the file items will therefore assume 'locally-dirty' icons , as shown in the left picture below.

You may choose to sort the file-items by file-name or host-name.

Now click on Manual sync to remote button to transfer the 'locally dirty' files to the corresponding remote areas. FTP will follow and if each transfer goes alright, 'dirty' icons will disappear.

Alternatively, click on Auto-sync button. This will automatically transfer the files, whenever they are dirty. Here is the Message window:

There is no restrictions on number of different hosts that can be mapped.

Please keep in mind that TextMaestro allows you to map different files sitting in different locations (locally and remotely) to different hosts of different kinds (UNIX, LINUX, AIX, VMS, another Windows machine). It is up to you how you utilize this flexibility. As always, power comes with complexity.

Comment: While working with multiple hosts, Make same Host button can become very handy. Consider the following example.

Suppose we just added the following files to the basket:

    my_script.txt

    im_tech_m_01.gif

    im_tech_m_02.gif

They assumed Default session attributes and therefore are mapped to remote host bonst. However, we want them to use the remote information of some other file listed in some other session.

Although we could click on File Attribute button for each file, and change its remote attributes manually, we have a better way.

From Session toolbar, click on Make same host button. The following visual will appear.

Following the instructions on this image, now you can go off to any session and click on a specific file. The file you will click will impose its attributes on these three selected files, namely my_script.txt, im_tech_m_01.gif and im_tech_m_02.gif. And you will be placed back to My Session, where you started from. In other words, these three files will pick up the attributes of the clicked-on file.

Suppose you went off to a different session and clicked on a file called your_string.h, whose attributes are as follows:

From this Make same Host operation, three files of My Session will assume first four of above five attributes.

Note, the Make same Host operation changes only the remote attributes (the first four). It does not change the Local directory of the files in concern.

At this stage the files we added earlier, which were mapped to bonst will now change their mappings to new host kongfu.

In particular, if you click on File Attributes button, you will see something like this:

Now you can transfer above 7 files to the corresponding hosts - host121, bonst and kongfu all at once. Connections will be established on demand.

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