Import your sites from WinSCP

Coming from WinSCP on Windows? AirSCP can make a host for each of your WinSCP sites, with its folder, its key, its tunnel (as a jump host) and its proxy.

Steps

  1. In WinSCP on the PC, choose Tools ▸ Export/Backup Configuration… and save WinSCP.ini.
  2. Copy WinSCP.ini to this Mac. Put the PuTTY keys (.ppk files) your sites use in the same folder.
  3. In AirSCP, choose File ▸ Import from WinSCP… and pick WinSCP.ini.
  4. AirSCP says how many hosts it made, and what it left out.

What comes over

  • Each SFTP or SCP site becomes a host: address, port, user name and the folder it opens in.
  • A folder of sites becomes a group. A site in a folder in a folder goes in a group such as “Work/Web”.
  • Tunnel settings become a jump host, shared by the sites that use it. See Connect through a jump host. A site that also goes through a proxy gets a jump host through that proxy (named “bastion via proxy”), so the proxy is never skipped. Hosts you already have are never changed.
  • An HTTP or SOCKS5 proxy becomes a proxy. See Connect through a proxy. Sites through SOCKS4 or a proxy WinSCP runs itself stay behind.
  • A .ppk key without a passphrase becomes an OpenSSH key in your key folder (~/.ssh unless Settings names another), and the host logs in with it.

What stays behind

  • Saved passwords: AirSCP never reads them. It asks for a password when you connect, and can keep it in the Keychain.
  • FTP, WebDAV and S3 sites: AirSCP connects over SSH only.
  • SOCKS4 proxies and proxies that WinSCP runs itself: add those hosts by hand.
  • A .ppk key with a passphrase: import it in Window ▸ Keys, then choose it in Edit Host.

Tips

  • Importing the same file again adds only the sites that are new.
  • WinSCP keeps its settings in the Windows registry until you export them. Tools ▸ Export/Backup Configuration… always writes a WinSCP.ini that AirSCP can read.

If something goes wrong

  • “No SSH sites in WinSCP.ini”: the file has no SFTP or SCP sites. Check that you exported WinSCP’s configuration, not a single site’s URL.
  • “deploy.ppk isn’t beside the file”: copy that key into the folder that holds WinSCP.ini, then import again.