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File management

You are now logged into AI-LAB and are in your user directory, which is located at /ceph/home/<domain>/<user>. You can confirm this by typing pwd. This directory is your private storage space where you can keep all your files. It is stored on a network file system, so you can access your files from any compute node within the platform.

Here is the general file structure on AI-LAB:

  • /ceph AI-LAB's file system
    • home user home directories
      • [domain] e.g student.aau.dk
        • [user] your user directory
    • project shared project directories
    • course directory with course specific material
    • container directory with ready-to-use applications

For a detailed overview of the AI-LAB storage system, click here.

Transfer files within AI-LAB

You can use the command cp [source] [destination] to copy files and cp -r [source] [destination] to copy folders to and from directories within AI-LAB. This will be useful when you need to retrieve applications or course materials later. For example:

cp /ceph/course/claaudia/docs/matlab_script.m ~/

Here, /ceph/course/claaudia/docs/matlab_script.m is the path to the file or folder you want to copy, and ~/ is the path to where you want to copy it—in this case, your user directory.

If you want to copy files into a specific folder within your home directory, you can add the folder path after the tilde. For example:

cp /ceph/course/claaudia/docs/matlab_script.m ~/myfolder/

Remember to add -r to the command if you are copying a folder.

Transfer files between your local computer and AI-LAB

You can transfer files between your local computer and AI-LAB using WinSCP. Other popular solutions are PuTTY and FileZilla. Alternatively, you can install OpenSSH to use the scp command, as shown for Linux/MacOS users.

When you open WinSCP, you will be greeted by a Login modal. Follow the instructions in the image above to establish a connection to the server. Screenshot of WinSCP setup

You can now drag and drop files between your local computer and the AI-LAB platform.

Info

You might want to display hidden files in WinSCP (such as files starting with a dot on Linux systems). Go to Options → Preferences... → Panels and turn on "Show hidden files".

You can transfer files between your local computer and AI-LAB using the command line utility scp from your local computer (note: You have to be logged out from AI-LAB to use scp).

scp some-file user@student.aau.dk@ailab-fe01.srv.aau.dk:~/some-dir

Replace user@student.aau.dk with your AAU email address.

Here, ~ represents your user directory on AI-LAB and /some-dir a folder in your directory.

To copy files from AI-LAB to your local computer, use:

scp user@student.aau.dk@ailab-fe01.srv.aau.dk:~/some-folder/some-subfolder/some-file .

Replace user@student.aau.dk with your AAU email address.

Here, . represents the current directory on your local computer.

Editing Files on AI-LAB

You can easily edit files on AI-LAB using text editors like Nano or Vim. Nano is beginner-friendly, while Vim offers advanced features for more experienced users.

For a detailed guide on how to use these editors, please visit our Linux text editors guide.

Now that you know the basics of file transfer, lets proceed to learn how to get applications