FAQ

These are the Frequently Asked questions for the installation and usage of AScopy. If you feel that some information is missing please feel free to contact me.

Where does the name AScopy come from?

This is an inevitable question on any serious FAQ list :). The name AScopy is an acronym for Another Sitecopy. I came up with this very original name when I started to write a Bash-based replacement for sitecopy. A tool I was using to perform maintenance on the web sites that I administer.

Why was AScopy created when there are already several tools with similar functionality?

Basically just to scratch an itch. That is, the other tools all perform fine but all lacked something different. Some had to be compiled for every system that I wanted to use them on and some expected a fully installed scripting environment other than a standard shell (which I think Bash is) complete with even more non-standard modules.

What can I do if I do not have sufficient privileges to install AScopy?

If you do not have sufficient privileges to install AScopy in for example /bin or /usr/bin, then try to provide a path in your home directory using the prefix option of the configure script like this:

./configure --prefix=$HOME/ascopy

This will install AScopy in the $HOME/ascopy/bin directory and the documentation in $HOME/ascopy/man directory.
The adjust your PATH and MANPATH settings to point to these directories.

Does AScopy work when I am behind a firewall?

If your network allows SSH connections through the firewall then you should have no problems. Try to connect to the remote machine using a normal SSH log-in first. If that does not succeed then there is a possibility to install a proxy that will tunnel your SSH connection through your local HTTP proxy server.
More information on the installation and usage of this proxy can be found here.

I have to provide my password several times when I run AScopy. Can this be avoided?

Since AScopy internally makes use of your local SSH set-up it should be possible to generate a public/private key pair and then provide your public key to the remote system. One way of doing this is described below. It is assumed that you do not yet have a SSH key pair.

On your local machine execute the following commands:

mkdir -p $HOME/.ssh chmod 0700 $HOME/.ssh ssh-keygen -t dsa -f $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa -P ''

Now copy the resulting file $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa.pub to the remote server you want password-less access to and log in to the remote system (using SSH of course). On the remote system take the following actions:

mkdir -p $HOME/.ssh chmod 0700 $HOME/.ssh cat id_dsa.pub >> $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys2 chmod 0600 $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys2 rm -f id_dsa.pub

If you want access from multiple machines to the remote system just repeat the ssh-keygen, cat and rm commands from the system you want use to connect to the remote server.

Please refer here for more information on this subject.