[SFTP] Closed connection not re-opened

[Marjolein Katsma]

I've seen this several times now - usually when the connection to an SFTP server is lost, there is an automatic reconnect. Except, apparently, in some cases.

I tend to keep a folder compare open when I know I'll have to return to it later. If by then the connection is lost, and I start to move around in the directory structure, the connection is not reinstated.

I'm attaching a small screenshot of the log window: yesterday evening I successfully copied a load of files; this afternoon I had to move to another part in the directory structure, starting by going up (both sides). Cirrus then throws an error (and the RHS window becomes empty) instead of reconnecting.
(I tried the "Browse for folder button and selected the SFTP connection followed by "connect and browse", but I only get the current ("currently known") part of the tree; when I try to expand at that point I get an error "Unable to retrieve directory contents" - it doesn't look as if "Connect and browse" actually does a connect, but instead this dialog "thinks" it's still connected.)

It would be nice if automatic reconnect could happen in this scenario, too. Or, alternatively, we could have a command (+ button icon to put it on the toolbar) to reconnect on demand.

Possible?

[chrroe]

Hi Marjolein!

Or, alternatively, we could have a command (+ button icon to put it on the toolbar) to reconnect on demand.

Well, one way to get a clearly established connection is to use the green Full Refresh button in the folder-viewer. It closes an eventually existing connection and does a complete new login. But it also reloads the whole directory structure, so in most cases any expanded folders get closed.


Bye
Christoph

[Marjolein Katsma]

Hi Christoph,

Well, one way to get a clearly established connection is to use the green Full Refresh button in the folder-viewer. It closes an eventually existing connection and does a complete new login. But it also reloads the whole directory structure, so in most cases any expanded folders get closed.

Well, yes. But that's not what I call a 'reconnect' - I'd not only lose folder expansions, but also which files I have selected. (I often work with the same small set of files for quite a while, so keeping them selected, all I have to do for a new transfer is hit a single button.)

I don't understand why Cirrus is only sometimes doing a reconnect. BC2, if I do a new action and it discovers the connection is gone, simply reconnects. Cirrus, instead, seems to reconnect only occasionally, and more frequently just start a transfer (it looks as if it's actually starting before checking the connection), only to discover (once for each of the files involved) that the connection has gone and then report an error.

I don't know if this has anything to do with SFTP or not (but the occasional reconnects I'm seeing are also in SFTP). But if it can report the connection has gone, why can't it reconnect and resume instead?

Auto-reconnect would be great; if not possible, at least a "reconnect on demand" function (menu option, button) so a reconnect is possible without losing all tree expansions and file selections. That would save a great deal of time.

(My "regular" FTP program, LeapFTP, has a single button to do a reconnect or disconnect(!) on demand, with its button face showing the possible action, with a reconnect restoring the complete state; that's very convenient.)

[Chris]

Marjolein,

Thanks for the problem report.

In the screen shot you posted earlier, it looks like the connection sat idle for about 22 hours. Are you having problems reconnecting if you let Cirrus sit idle for shorter time periods, or does it only have a problem when it sits idle for multiple hours?

Also, what operating system or SFTP server software is running on the server you're connecting to?

[Marjolein Katsma]

Marjolein,

Thanks for the problem report.

In the screen shot you posted earlier, it looks like the connection sat idle for about 22 hours. Are you having problems reconnecting if you let Cirrus sit idle for shorter time periods, or does it only have a problem when it sits idle for multiple hours?

Yes, that was a bit longer than normal - but I'm seeing these disconnects after shorter idle time (if that matters at all!) as well. I don't really know if there is some sort of "limit".

(I tend to work in "bursts" on this system, stopping when something else needs my attention, or the web server "disappears" for some reason so there are irregular periods of idle time; leaving the dialog open helps me to resume after that, jogging my memory which files in which directories I was working on.)

Also, what operating system or SFTP server software is running on the server you're connecting to?

The OS is some sort of Linux - I don't know which (I can find out if needed). If I connect with Tunnelier the SSH server announces itself as "SSH-1.99-OpenSSH_3.9p1" - no info on SFTP; it will just be whatever corresponds to that SSH version. If you need to know more, let me know - it's not my own server, so I'll have to ask.

[Zoë]

Marjolein,

This will be fixed in the next release. Our SFTP library wasn't reporting it's connection status properly, so even though the log showed "Connection lost", most of the program didn't realize it. Now that I've fixed that it automatically reconnects as soon as you try to perform a new command.

[Marjolein Katsma]

Hi Craig,

This will be fixed in the next release. Our SFTP library wasn't reporting it's connection status properly, so even though the log showed "Connection lost", most of the program didn't realize it.

"Didn't realize it" is exactly what it looked like!

Now that I've fixed that it automatically reconnects as soon as you try to perform a new command.

Great. I was so used to BC2 doing automatic reconnects I was somewhat taken aback by this (but I hadn't used SFTP with BC2, obviously). Thanks for looking into this.