Saving a remote buffer into a local file

Saving a remote buffer into a local file

[Dani Moncayo]

Hi all,

Yesterday, I wanted to do something with Emacs, and failed.  I did a
quick search in the Tramp manual and Google, and found no solution.
So I'm asking here for help.

Suppose I visit some remote file:

   C-x C-f /ssh:user1@host1:/path1/file1

Now, I want to save the resulting buffer into a local file.  Doing:

  C-x C-w ~/file2

does not work, since in will create a file in the remote host (host1).

I think it would be nice to have some special syntax, so that I can
specify a path in my local host (and avoid the cumbersome
"/localuser@localhost:/localpath").

Is there such a syntax?  If not, which do you think is the easiest way
to save the buffer in my local host?

TIA

-- 
Dani Moncayo

Re: Saving a remote buffer into a local file

[Dani Moncayo]

> I think it would be nice to have some special syntax, so that I can
> specify a path in my local host (and avoid the cumbersome
> "/localuser@localhost:/localpath").
>
> Is there such a syntax?

Answering myself: Yes, it seems so: Just quote the local path with "/:":

  C-x C-w /:~/file2

This feature is documented in the Emacs manual.  Node "Quoted File Names".

Thanks.

-- 
Dani Moncayo

Re: Saving a remote buffer into a local file

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo@gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2017 10:37:23 +0100
> 
> > I think it would be nice to have some special syntax, so that I can
> > specify a path in my local host (and avoid the cumbersome
> > "/localuser@localhost:/localpath").
> >
> > Is there such a syntax?
> 
> Answering myself: Yes, it seems so: Just quote the local path with "/:":
> 
>   C-x C-w /:~/file2

Yes.  However, don't expect this to resolve to a file in your local
home directory.  That's what currently happens on MS-Windows (not on
Unix), but it will go away in Emacs 26, where "~/" will no longer
expand to HOME in quoted file names.  Instead, you will get
DEFDIR/~/file2, where DEFDIR is the default-directory of the buffer
from which you invoke the command.  That's because "/:" is supposed to
quote the tilde as well, allowing to use it as a literal character in
a file name.

Re: Saving a remote buffer into a local file

[Stefan Monnier]

> Suppose I visit some remote file:
>    C-x C-f /ssh:user1@host1:/path1/file1
> Now, I want to save the resulting buffer into a local file.  Doing:
>   C-x C-w ~/file2
> does not work, since in will create a file in the remote host (host1).

It works for me if I add a "C-a C-k":

    C-x C-w C-a C-k ~/file2

Yet, if I do like you suggest, I see a bug: while typing "~/file2" the
leading "/ssh:user1@host1:/path1/" text is greyed out, giving the
incorrect impression that it won't be used.


        Stefan

Re: Saving a remote buffer into a local file

[Dani Moncayo]

Hi Stefan and Eli,

On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 5:10 PM, Stefan Monnier
<monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:
>> Suppose I visit some remote file:
>>    C-x C-f /ssh:user1@host1:/path1/file1
>> Now, I want to save the resulting buffer into a local file.  Doing:
>>   C-x C-w ~/file2
>> does not work, since in will create a file in the remote host (host1).
>
> It works for me if I add a "C-a C-k":
>
>     C-x C-w C-a C-k ~/file2

That works here[1] too.  That's an easier way of creating the local
file.  Thank you!

On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 5:00 PM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
>> [...]
>> Answering myself: Yes, it seems so: Just quote the local path with "/:":
>>
>>   C-x C-w /:~/file2

Actually, what I did was

  C-x C-w C-a C-k /:~/file2

> Yes.  However, don't expect this to resolve to a file in your local
> home directory.  That's what currently happens on MS-Windows (not on
> Unix),

For the record: this ("/:~" resolving to my local home directory)
does happen here[1].

> but it will go away in Emacs 26, where "~/" will no longer
> expand to HOME in quoted file names.  Instead, you will get
> DEFDIR/~/file2, where DEFDIR is the default-directory of the buffer
> from which you invoke the command.  That's because "/:" is supposed to
> quote the tilde as well, allowing to use it as a literal character in
> a file name.

Ok, so IIUC, from Emacs 26 onwards, if I want to save the remote
buffer into a local file, I will have to specify an explicit, absolute
quoted path like "/:/home/dani/foo" (or follow Stefan's suggestion,
which is easier actually).

Thanks.

-- 
Dani Moncayo

Footnotes:
[1] My environment: Cygwin + Emacs 25.1 (distributed with cygwin).

Re: Saving a remote buffer into a local file

[Michael Albinus]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> Suppose I visit some remote file:
>>    C-x C-f /ssh:user1@host1:/path1/file1
>> Now, I want to save the resulting buffer into a local file.  Doing:
>>   C-x C-w ~/file2
>> does not work, since in will create a file in the remote host (host1).
>
> It works for me if I add a "C-a C-k":
>
>     C-x C-w C-a C-k ~/file2
>
> Yet, if I do like you suggest, I see a bug: while typing "~/file2" the
> leading "/ssh:user1@host1:/path1/" text is greyed out, giving the
> incorrect impression that it won't be used.

No. Only "/path1/" is greyed out, telling you that *this* part won't be
used.

Remote file names have a special meaning of double slash and slash tilde
in file name completion. It removes the leading part of the remote file
name's local part. You need another slash for removing the whole file
name in the minibuffer. Therefore, doing

  C-x C-w /~/file2

would suffice. You will see also the grey part of the minibuffer being
changed to the whole line. Personally, when I want to save a remote file
locally, I have the attitude typing three slashes first. Meanwhile, I do
this even w/o thinking about :-)

See (info "(tramp) File name completion") for discussion.

>         Stefan

Best regards, Michael.