HiddenStore option may be useful

Thomas Blank thomas at ohzone.de
Sat Apr 14 17:17:32 EST 2007


I'm missing a HiddenStore option in OpenSSH, known from some ftp-server 
implementations like ProFTPd.

Consider the following scenario:
- A process PROCA is frequently polling the directory for a file called 
myfile.txt
- Someone transfers this file via sftp or scp to the directory
- While transfer is going on and the file is not completely written, 
PROCA reads in the file and removes is
-> Corrupt data is seen by PROCA

Knowing this problem you have to solutions:
1. PROCA must check if myfile.txt is changing (filesize, mtime...) and 
wait until it does not change any more
2. sftp and scp use a HiddenStore by writing the file with a unique 
filename (eg. .myfile.txt) and renaming it at the end of the transfer 
(mv .myfile.txt myfile.txt)

What do you think about this?

Thomas


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