Murphy Mac

Folder Actions Via SSH - Retrieving Files on Your Mac From a PC

You’re going to be away from your Mac for the holiday weekend? What if you need some important files from your G5 while you’re gone? What if you only have access to a PC at Aunt Millie’s house?

We’ve still got ways to connect and retrieve files. Like using SSH to mail an attachment from a remote machine. You don’t need a screencast, Murphy’s already given you all the pieces.

First, set up a Folder Action on the machine you’ll be connecting to via SSH. Murphy has a screencast on sending email attachments to a predetermined address. Make sure your router lets port 22 in. You can learn more about port forwarding in the screencast on VNC.

Then you can make an SSH connection to the computer from just about anywhere. Use the zip command to package up multiple files if you’re not just emailing a lone file. Copy the file to your Folder Action equipped folder using SSH. The Folder Action will still kick in and email the file for you.

Obviously there are tools like rsync and scp - but of your needs are specialized a Folder Action could be your cure.

If you need to SSH from a Windows machine download PuTTY. PuTTY’s single exe is a snap to use. You should probably have a copy on your thumb-drive for convenient access.

Using PuTTy isn’t exactly the same as running a Terminal session on your Mac. For instance, you can’t use rsync to copy files from the PC to the remote Mac. If transferring files is a pressing need you can take a look at PSFTP and PSCP.

Here are the posts with information relevant to the task:

• Folder Actions - How to email files by dropping them in a Finder folder.
• Chicken of the VNC - The screencast includes basic instructions for port forwarding.
• Remote Login with SSH - Running a secure Terminal session on a remote machine. Also - look at SSH Without a Password.
  
• Zip - Packaging multiple files into a single file.

With the information in those screencasts you can extend the power of Folder Actions to SSH. Murphy’s not saying you’ll want to use this to email files - it’s just an example to illustrate the possibilities.

Some readers have pointed out that an Automator Droplet might be more useful than Folder Actions for mailing files. But you can’t trigger the Droplet from an SSH session like you can with Folder Actions. The Droplet has its benefits, but so do Folder Actions.

The Crazy Message Text script comes with OS X so you can make some festive looking emails for birthdays or holidays. But the finished product conjures up images of letters cut from a magazine and taped to a piece of paper. Like a ransom note from a James Patterson novel.

The script is fairly self-explanatory but Murphy’s throwing in a screencast anyway, in case you’re away from your Mac. It’s quick, take a look.

You’ve got other scripts in your /Library/Scripts/Mail Scripts folder - give them a peek - maybe there’s something you could use.

Note: The script generates a multi-color message, not something like the image in this post. Click the image above to generate your own classic-style ransom note.

How do you send links? Command+L to highlight the URL? Command+C to copy the link? Go to Mail, create a message, paste in the link…

You don’t have to do all that! If you’re loyal to the natives like Safari and Mail you can take advantage of Command+I when you need to send a page. Yes, Command+I. Safari and Mail will tag-team the rest.

This is so easy, we almost didn’t make the screencast. But maybe you’re at work and you want to see it right now. Go ahead and watch, it’s short.
Take a look at this entry on Hawkwings if you want some more information on other browsers and similar capabilities.

Murphy doesn’t even use Mail in a conventional way. But it’s often open for things like quickly sending attachments, and having the Mac respond to emails demanding action.

This little trick isn’t a bad reason to keep Mail open either.

Murphy picked this tip up from Tim Margh last year and has been using it ever since. The Snippet shows how to configure your Mac to watch for emails matching certain criteria, like a particular subject. When the message comes in your Mac goes off to sleepyland. You could use this technique to have your Mac do other things as well. Perhaps more interesting things.

Some people will say this is stupid, you can simply set your Mac to sleep after x minutes. First of all, that’s no fun. Second, some people don’t want their Mac going to sleep on a timer. Ever.

On occasion Murphy wakes his Mac up remotely and connects with VNC. Sometimes he disconnects without putting the machine back to sleep. Instead of logging back in he just fires off a magic email.

You’ll need to download one file to try this yourself, straight from Apple’s site. It’s a sleeper action for Automator. Run the installer that comes in the dmg. The rest is all built-in.

So click Watch Now to view the screencast as Murphy acts out Tim’s tip. By the way, he uses text messages to sleep his Mac!
ps: Your Mac needs to be turned on, and Mail needs to be running.

Update: What about Windows? You can easily reboot Windows by email. Watch this to see how.

Note: Some readers have pointed out that you can do this whole thing in AppleScript. That’s true. But by using both Automator and AppleScript we’ve shown that you can kick off anything those two technologies can do - by email. Or text message for that matter.

Click for more ways to control your Mac by email.

There must be someone you email stuff to all the time. Maybe you send your mom pictures. Or you send an agenda to your boss every day. That can take a lot of clicks. Open Mail. Create a message. Address it. Attach the file. Write a subject. Sounds like a lot of work.

Instead, watch this Snippet. You can create an action that grabs every file you add to a folder and mails it off to a pre-configured address. Click to see an example. Or click Watch Now below to see how to set it up.

Murphy uses this as a crude backup tool. He drops key files to a folder and they are instantly whisked away to a free email service. Quick and convenient archiving.

What do you think? Too lazy?

Bonus: Murphy has provided a Folder Action script that prompts for a subject before sending the attachment.

Download Script

or Download Script w/ Subject Prompt

Update, June 2007: See this new post on this subject.