Following are some example commands for transferring files and folders to and from the server. The NeSI support page also has good instructions.
Remember:
You must have permissions to access the target folder on the server to which you wish to move your file
Your terminal must be on your computer to move files (that is, your pwd should be somewhere on your own computer)
scp /path/to/file/FILENAME mahuika:/path/to/target/folder
(Note the colon ‘:’ after the server name.)
If your terminal is in the folder containing the file, you do not need the path:
scp FILENAME mahuika:/path/to/target/folder
Likewise, if you are transferring the file to your home folder on NeSI, then you do not need the path (although remember that your NeSI home folder does not have much space):
scp FILENAME mahuika:
Transferring to a subfolder in your home folder on NeSI:
scp FILENAME mahuika:scripts/
If the folder is in another part of NeSI, then you need to put the full path:
scp FILENAME mahuika:/nesi/project/uooXXXX/example_project/example_subfolder/
If you want to upload an entire folder (make sure you want to move all the files), just add the -r argument:
scp -r /path/to/FOLDERNAME mahuika:/path/to/target/folder
Note that this will create a folder called FOLDERNAME within the target folder.
In order to move files from NeSI or another server to your own computer, the order of paths is reversed:
scp mahuika:/path/to/file/FILENAME /path/to/target/folder/
Note if your terminal is in the target folder (pwd), then you can just add a period at the end:
scp mahuika:/path/to/file/FILENAME .
The same rules apply for absolute paths. For example, if you are moving a file from your home folder on NeSI:
scp mahuika:FILENAME /path/to/target/folder/
You can also substitute the ~ (tilde) for the root path on your computer (e.g. ~/ instead of /Users/hughcross/)
And the same rules apply for downloading folders:
scp -r mahuika:/nesi/project/uooXXXX/example_project/example_subfolder/ /path/to/target/folder
You can also use the command line tool rsync to move files to and from the server. It has many uses, such as making regular backups to an external hard drive. rsync has some advantages over using scp, for example, you can update a folder you have already copied to the server, and it will only update the files that have changed (if it is a big folder, this can save lots of time). As well, if the transfer is interrupted, rsync will pick up where it left off. For purposes of archiving, when using rsync, the timestamp of your original files will be preserved, whereas with scp the date of the copied files will be the current one. This can be useful when backing up and preserving the original dates of your files.
For a single file
rsync FILENAME mahuika:/path/to/target/folderIt is better to use the -a option, as that will preserve time stamp and permissions, etc. Here I have also added the -v option (–verbose) which will output the status:
rsync -av FILENAME mahuika:/path/to/target/folder
For syncing folders it is the same command:
rsync -av /path/to/folder mahuika:/path/to/target/folder
And, the same thing transferring from the server to your computer:
rsync -av mahuika:/path/to/folder ~/Documents
If you add the --delete option, any files on the target that are not on the source folder will be deleted. To avoid accidentally deleting any precious files, it is advised to use the --dry-run command first, which will show you what would happen without actually doing anything:
rsync -av /path/to/source/folder --dry-run --delete scripts mahuika:/path/to/target/folder
Once you have checked it will do what you want, you can run without the dry-run option
rsync -av /path/to/source/folder --delete scripts mahuika:/path/to/target/folder
As mentioned, you can do this to back up to an external hard drive:
rsync -av /path/to/source/folder /Volumes/NAME_OF_EXTERNAL_HD/target/folder