Chapter 4. Miscellaneous Topics

Networktransparency via KIO

KIO-Slaves

+KDE supports networktransparency via KIO-slaves. KDiff3 uses this +for reading input files and for scanning directories. +This means that you can specify files and directories on local and +remote resources via URLs. +

+Example: +

+   kdiff3 test.cpp  ftp://ftp.faraway.org/test.cpp
+   kdiff3 tar:/home/hacker/archive.tar.gz/dir ./dir
+

The first line compares a local file with a file on an FTP-server. The second line +compares a directory within an compressed archive with a local directory. +

+Other KIO-slaves that are interesting are: +

Files from the WWW (http:),
Files from the FTP (ftp:),
Encrypted file transfer (fish:, sftp:),
Windows-ressources (smb:),
Local files (file:),

+Other things that are possible, but probably less useful are: +

Man-pages (man:),
Info-pages (info:),

How To Write URLs

+ An URL has a different syntax compared with paths for local files and directories. + Some things should be considered: +

+ A path can be relative and can contain "." or "..". This is not possible for URLs + which are always absolute. +
+ Special characters must be written with "escaping". ("#"->"%23", space->"%20", etc.) + E.g. A file with the name "/#foo#" would have the URL "file:/%23foo%23". +
+ When URLs don't work as expected, try to open them in Konqueror first. +

Capabilities of KIO-Slaves

+ Networktransparency has one drawback: Not all ressources have the same cababilities. +

+ Sometimes this is due to the file system of the server, sometimes due to the protocol. + Here is a short list of restrictions: +

+ Sometimes there is no support for links. +
+ Or there is no way to distinguish if a link points to a file or a directory; always + assuming a file. (ftp:, sftp:). +
+ Can't always determine the filesize. +
+ Limited support for permissions. +
+ No possibility to modify permissions or modification time, so permissions or time + of a copy will differ from the original. (See the option "Trust the size".) + (To modify permissions or modification time is only possible for local files.) +