Restricting Access to Server Paths
For security reasons, administrators can optionally configure DiffDog Server to restrict server paths accessible to clients that connect to the server machine. For example, if server paths are restricted, a comparison such as the one below (which compares a file on the client with one on the server) would no longer be allowed by default:
diffdogcmdlclient diff --client-left=path\to\client\file.txt --server-right=path\to\server\file.txt --mode=text |
When server paths are restricted, clients must always specify the option --alias when running a comparison that includes server paths. An alias is a designated directory on the server machine where remote comparisons are allowed. Any server paths outside of the alias directory are not accessible to remote clients and cannot be included in comparisons.
On the server machine, administrators can restrict server paths as follows:
1.Open the server configuration file.
2.Set the option restrict-to-aliases = true.
3.For each directory that must be considered an alias, add an [alias] configuration key, for example:
restrict-to-aliases = true
[alias:sandbox1] path = C:\Public\Comparisons
[alias:sandbox2] path = D:\Comparisons |
4.Restart DiffDog Server as a service.
Clients can now run a comparison that include either sandbox1 or sandbox2 as command line option. Specifically, if the path C:\Public\Comparisons\file.txt exists on the server, a client can refer to it as follows:
diffdogcmdlclient diff --client-left=path\to\client\file.txt --server-right=file.txt --mode=text --alias=sandbox1 |
A client can always view the list of aliases available on the server by running the aliases command.