Multi-file content search on ftp/remote server

[Lewis Downey]

Is it possible to search the content of files on an FTP server? It seems like that feature used to work. Is it currently possible? When we attempt to drag files or folders to the "Search In" area of the multi-file search widget they do not stick. Thanks!

[Patrick Woolsey]

Lewis Downey <lewis...@gmail.com> said:

> Is it possible to [directly] search the content of files on an FTP server? It seems like that feature used to work. Is it currently possible?
>

I regret this is not currently possible, nor has it ever been.

Due to limitations of the FTP and SFTP protocols, it is not feasible
for BBEdit to treat files located on remote (FTP or SFTP) servers in
the same manner as local files.

For instance, you cannot add remote directories to a project and
browse their contents, or perform multi-file searches on remote files
without explicitly opening them first, etc.

The best way to work around these limitations is to use a drive
utility app to mount the desired server(s) into your Mac's filesystem,
so you can then work directly with the files on that server just as if
they were stored on your Mac.

The two drive utilities that I'm most familiar with are ExpanDrive:

<https://www.expandrive.com/>

and Mountain Duck (from the makers of the CyberDuck file transfer app):

<https://mountainduck.io/>

As an alternative, some file transfer apps allow you to maintain a
local copy of the remote files, which you can work on normally, and
then synchronize[*] those files between your Mac and the server.

For instance, here are details on how Cyberduck's folder sync feature works:

<https://docs.cyberduck.io/cyberduck/sync/>

[*: This capability is sometimes called 'mirroring' instead.]

Regards,

Patrick Woolsey
==
Bare Bones Software, Inc. <https://www.barebones.com/>

On Thu, Apr 23, 2026 at 11:31 PM Lewis Downey <lewis...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Is it possible to search the content of files on an FTP server? It seems like that feature used to work. Is it currently possible? When we attempt to drag files or folders to the "Search In" area of the multi-file search widget they do not stick. Thanks!
>

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[Lewis Downey]

Thank you. It is entirely possible that when the feature seemed like it was working in the past the remote server was actually mounted as a desktop volume using an old version of Transmit™.

> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bbedit/CAOXwq9rJoVMCmi-VrqnX6mhLSFq-Qcs93c98fDeC8%2BwNBSJhOQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Steve deRosier]

Another suggestion that gets part-way there is to open all the files via ftp or sftp you want, and then use the multi-find and check the all checkbox on Open Text Documents in the "Search in:" portion of the dialog.  For a fairly constrained set of files it works well. For larger sets, I just login to the remote computer and use grep or cscope in the terminal.

- Steve

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bbedit/5A58AE11-6BD2-4B5A-A5D3-CE5ED268043E%40gmail.com.