CuteFTP is a popular FTP client that many Discus customers use to transfer files from their computers to their web servers when installing Discus. The following document is prepared to provide additional instructions and tips for using CuteFTP to transfer files. Please note that CuteFTP is developed and distributed by GlobalSCAPE, Inc. and any questions regarding CuteFTP not covered in this document should be addressed to their support engineers.

ASCII vs. Binary

In CuteFTP if a user specifies to transfer in 'Automatic' mode, the system will search for the extension in the 'ASCII' extension list, and if it is listed, will transfer the file in ASCII mode to the UNIX server. In UNIX, if the server receives a file in ASCII, it will treat this as a TEXT file and will remove any LF or CR entries from the file since UNIX does not use LF or CR's the way that windows does...

If a user specifies to transfer in BINARY mode only, the system will transfer the file in BINARY mode, the same with specifying to transfer in ASCII mode only.

Brian, Support Technician, GlobalSCAPE, Inc

By default, the extensions used by some Discus files are not registered in CuteFTP's 'ASCII' extension list (for example: .conf, .tmpl). Therefore, it is very important that you manually select the transfer mode before transferring Discus files to your server. Do this by going to the Transfer menu, selecting Transfer Type, and checking ASCII for ASCII mode. For binary mode, repeat this procedure and check Binary.

DiscusWare has confirmed that version 4.2 of CuteFTP properly handles ASCII vs. binary mode transfers when the above procedure is used. It has been reported to us that this may not have worked properly in previous versions of CuteFTP, so we encourage users of CuteFTP to ensure that they are running the latest version of CuteFTP.

Setting Permissions

Setting permissions on files and directories is possible using CuteFTP. First, highlight all directories or files on the right side of the window for which you wish to set permissions. Do this by clicking the first file, holding down shift, and clicking the last file. Then right click and choose CHMOD... from the window. This brings up a dialog box to set permissions. To set permissions of 755 or 777, enter "755" or "777" into the "Manual" box. Or, you can check the boxes individually (see CHMOD help page for details).