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Sharing files with Other Users

Sharing files with other users requires a few steps, and to ensure the safety of your files, this process allows the recipient to open up their storage to all users for a controlled duration of time.

Using these steps typically suggests you are sharing files with users outside your own group (Otherwise you can share with the users more directly using group-owned /data shares).

Sharing Overview

The process goes like this:

  1. Recipient creates a directory with world-writable permissions.
  2. Sender copies files from their storage into the shared directory.
  3. Recipient revokes writable permissions on the directory.
  4. Recipient now has their copy of the files

1: Connect to the Sol Data Transfer Node

Use this node regardless of whether you wish to do transfers on Sol or Phoenix--this node services both.

ssh <asurite>@soldtn.sol.rc.asu.edu

2: Recipient creating receiving directory

This example uses <sender> and <recepient> to be replaced by actual ASURITEs.

chmod -R o+rx /scratch/<recipient>
install -d -m 777 /scratch/<recipient>/receiving_dir

This example uses <sender> and <recepient> to be replaced by actual ASURITEs.

The first command makes the recipient scratch directory traversable-to all users. The second command creates a directory named receiving_dir in the /scratch/<recipient> directory with full permissions (read, write, and execute) for the owner, group, and others.

info

Take note, while this step when executed on Phoenix advises the directory "/phxscratch", all copies will always be found in /scratch--it is only this data transfer node that differentiates in order to allow cross-supercomputer transfers.

warning

Do not do this with /home directories. Directories identified sharing from /home will also be reverted without notice.

3: Sender copies files to the receiving directory

cp -R /path/to/senders/file/or/files /scratch/<recipient>/receiving_dir

This line duplicates the file or directory in the receiving directory.

4: Recipient revokes permissions on receiving directory

After sending and receiving files, the recipient can then revoke permissions.

chmod o-rwx /scratch/<recipient>
# this stops other users from navigating or changing the files saved here

Usage note

This process is one of many ways in which files might be shared with other users; it requires steps to be performed by both the sender and receiver.

For regular collaboration frequent file sharing, project storage (purchasable) is a more sustainable/frictionless experience.