Transfering files between Macintosh and UNIX filesystems

General Rules

Use FTP Such as Anarchie or Fetch. Transfering documents via AppleShare is not as reliable.

Use Fetch 3.0 or Anarchie. Both are capable of performing both "Put" and "Get" functions from the Macintosh platform.

Make sure that the file name is supported on the target platform.

This is especially important when transfering files to Unix. On the Mac platform, the only rule is that names need to be less than 31 characters in length.

Be aware that Unix filenames cannot contain spaces or any of the following characters

:/*"|' (space is also illegal)

Try to translate documents before transfering them.

It's a good idea to translate a document using it's creator if possible. If your Macintosh document is not a in a format that is easily accessed by UNIX applications, then you should consider saving the document in ".pdf" or ".ps" format.

Don't destory the original copy until the transfer has been verified.

You may need to transfer the document due to some error in the ftp process.

Use Binary (also known as Raw Data or Image) transfer.

Unless you are transfering a TEXT document. Note that .ps, .html, .pdf and .txt files are "TEXT" documents.

Specific Examples

Below is a list of some specific file types and the best way to transfer them.

Mac to UNIX

• MS Excel
• FrameMaker
• MS Word
• Text
• Others

Excel

• Use Anarchie or Fetch in binary mode to transfer the document.

FrameMaker

Because FrameMaker exists on both the UNIX and the Macintosh platform, transfering documents between these two platforms is very easy.

• Use FTP to transfer the document. Make sure to specify 'Image' or 'Binary' as the transfer format.

MS Word

If your document requires that it retain its format, your document will need to be viewed in FrameMaker while on UNIX. To accomplish this you should, if possible, open your Word document with FrameMaker while it is still on your Mac and then save your document as a FrameMaker file.

If your document does not require that it retain its formatting options, then you should transfer it to UNIX as a TEXT document.

Text

• Save file on Mac as TEXT document. (SimpleText document are alway TEXT)
• Use 'Save As...' from the File Menu and choose 'Options'.
• Use FTP to transfer your document in ASCII or Text mode.
• The docuiment is now a .txt document and you should append it with '.txt'

Other Files

• Adobe Acrobat - Adobe Acrobat has the ability to save nearly any document in a format that is readable across UNIX, Macintosh and PC platforms. The document format is PDF (.pdf).
  • PDF files should be transfered via FTP in 'Text' or 'ASCII' mode.

• Postscript - before there was Acrobat, Adobe pioneered an ASCII based printer definition language called Postscript (.ps). Files on a Mac can be "printed" to a file. That file can then be transfered to a UNIX platform where it may be viewed.
  • Postscript files should be transfered via FTP in 'TEXT' or 'ASCII' mode.

• BinHex - A Binhex'ed file (.hex, .hqx) is one that has been encoded in a form that can be stored on virtually any form of media storage (including UNIX). These files can then be transfered back to a Macintosh for decoding. This process can be done automatically, such as Eudora does when sending mail messages, or manually through the use of Utilities such as StuffIT Expander.
  • BinHex files should be transfered via FTP in 'TEXT' or 'ASCII' mode.

Unix to Mac

FrameMaker -

There are two ways to reliably do this with Anarchie or Fetch.

First Method -- Suffix mapping This method requires that you add the suffix ".fm" to all of the Frame documents that you want to transfer from Unix to Mac.

Setting up Fetch for Suffix Mapping

1. Open Fetch and pull down the 'Customize' menu to 'Suffix Mapping...'.
2. Make sure that .fm is mapped to FrameMaker.
3. Establish the ftp connection to the host that has the Frame file(s) that you want to transfer.
4. 'Get' the file(s) using 'automatic'. The suffix mapping will ensure that the files are usable on your Mac.

Second Method -- Default Mapping This method converts anything you transfer to Framemaker documents by default. (Items that conform to the suffix mapping rules are converted by those rules first.)

1. Open Fetch and pull down the 'Customize' menu to 'Preferences...'.
2. Select 'Downloading' from the pop-up menu.
3. Enter 'FASL' in the Type field and 'Fram' in the Creator field. (Case sensitive!)
4. At this point, any document that is *not* suffix-mapped will become a FrameMaker document when transfered.

Wingz -

• Save file in Wingz as a SYLK document.
• Use FTP or Fetch in binary mode to transfer the document.
• Open the document on the Mac with Excel.

Text -

• Transfer the document with FTP in TEXT or ASCII mode.
• Open the document with SimpleText, Word, Frame or some other application on the Mac.