Using EFS


Using EFS
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   Once installed, efs operates largely transparently. All files
normally accessible to you on the internet, become part of a large
virtual file system. These files are accessed using an extended file
name syntax. To access file `<path>' on remote host `<host>' by logging
in as user `<user>', you simply specify the full path of the file as
`/<user>@<host>:<path>'. Nearly all Emacs file handling functions work
for remote files. It is not possible to access remote files using shell
commands in an emacs *shell* buffer, as such commands are passed
directly to the shell, and not handled by emacs.

   FTP is the underlying utility that efs uses to operate on remote
files.

   For example, if `find-file' is given a filename of:

     /ange@anorman:/tmp/notes

   then EFS will spawn an FTP process, connect to the host 'anorman' as
user 'ange', get the file `/tmp/notes' and pop up a buffer containing
the contents of that file as if it were on the local file system.  If
efs needed a password to connect then it would prompt the user in the
minibuffer. For further discussion of the EFS path syntax, see the
paragraph on extended file name syntax See Remote filenames.

   Full file-name completion is supported on every type of remote host.
To do filename completion, EFS needs a listing from the remote host.
Therefore, for very slow connections, it might not save any time.
However, the listing is cached, so subsequent uses of file-name
completion will be just as fast as for local file names.

Ports: Using nonstandard ports.
Remote filenames: The EFS extended filename syntax.
Passwords
Using Dired: Browsing directories.
Using a .netrc: Preventing password pestering.
EFS commands: Interactive commands supplied by EFS.
FTP processes: How EFS does its work
Tips: Some stuff to help you use EFS
DL support: Descriptive directory listings
Non-Unix Hosts: Some of what you want to know
Completion: Works but has its price
Accessing the FTP process: manually

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