Posting To Your SourceForge Project Web Space

January 14, 2009
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Sourceforge project administrators who are not familiar with Unix processes may find it a big confusing to figure out how to upload files to their project website space. A Google search reveals a couple of tutorials which are now out of date and incorrect, and the actual documentation on the Sourceforge website is not particularly clear. The process has actually become easier now that you aren’t forced to generate a public/private key with Putty or something like that. But you do need to use SCP or Secure FTP (SFTP).

1. This quick tutorial will use WinSCP, so if you don’t already have the latest version, download WinSCP now. Grab the plain exe file, not the setup or source zip. Save this into a folder on your computer. You do not need to do any installing.

2. Now that you have WinSCP, you need to gather together your project information. For this example we have this info:

  • Project Unix Name: projectname (substitute your own project name)
  • Account User Name: username (substitute your user name; you need your SF password too)
  • Host: web.sourceforge.net
  • Port: 22
  • Protocol: SFTP (Check Allow SCP Fallback)
  • Path To Project Web: /home/groups/p/pr/projectname/htdocs/
  • Path To Developer Web: /home/userweb/u/us/username/htdocs/
  • Path To Upload Staging Area: /incomming/u/us/username/uploads/

3. Run WinSCP, Windows will probably show you a warning about running an unsigned exe file or something like that, if you’re sure you got the official version of WinSCP, then you’re good to go. Fill in your host and username like so:

WinSCP Screen Shot

Leave the password field blank, and you do not need a key. Make sure the File protocol selected is SFTP, and check the box that says “Allow SCP fallback”. At this point, click Save to remember these settings for later use. Click Login and you will get a small dialog box showing you some information about your connection and prompting you for your password. Enter your Sourceforge account password and click Ok. You should now see a window that looks like a traditional FTP application with your local directory on the left, and the remote server directory on the right.

4. To get to your project web directory, browse to /home/groups/p/pr/projectname/htdocs/ (using the proper name for your project and following the directories alphabetically with first letter then first two letters of your project name). You can now drag and drop files between your local and remote directories in the two panels, or delete files as needed. When you are finished, click the menu option Session > Disconnect.

Your project website is located at: http://PROJECTNAME.sourceforge.net

Notes: You can also use this process to get to your developer web directory where you can post content unrelated to your project. The path to this is /home/userweb/u/us/username/htdocs/. You can also get to the staging area for uploads of files that you can add to your project releases. This path is /incomming/u/us/username/uploads/, upload your project files here, then add them to your project release in the Admin area. There are some differences between these web spaces, so read about them here: Project Web, Shell, VHOST and Database Services. Your developer website is located here: http://USERNAME.users.sourceforge.net

Hopefully this helps someone out there who is in my shoes, following old tutorials and wondering why it isn’t working! Thankfully, SF has simplified this process considerably.