Lab 1: Directories, Files, and SFTP
FIT 100, Winter 2005

Key Words: file, directory, folder, directory structure, local computer, remote computer, dante, SFTP, root directory, home directory, public_html, student_html, upload, download.
 
See Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) for a detailed description of the key words (and do not forget to cite).

Preparation

You should have completed the objectives in the Lab 0 before doing this lab.

Objectives

• Navigate through a directory structure on the local computer.
• Navigate through a directory structure on a remote computer (dante).
• Move files from the local computer to a remote computer and vice versa.

From this lab, you will learn how to store on and retrieve files from a remote computer named dante.

For this course, you are required to publish many of your completed assignments (homeworks, labs, and projects) on the web, with certain exceptions. This means that you will be required to place all of your files on dante and have your web publishing area activated. If your web publishing area is not activated or if you do not know if it is activated, complete Lab 0 before continuing with this lab.

In general, you should not use floppy disks for your assignments. They are unreliable and have a tendency to become unreadable when you need them the most! Instead, use a reliable remote computer (such as dante) to store your important data. You have been given 100 MB of disk space on dante, which should be more than sufficient for this course.

A directory is often also called a folder or, less commonly, a catalog.

Navigate through a Directory Structure on the Local Computer

To be able to find directories and files on your local computer, you must understand how to navigate through the computer's directory structure. This section explains how to navigate through a Windows environment on the local computer.

The local computer is the computer your keyboard is attached to.

1. Open Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer). You will use Windows Explorer on the local computer to navigate through its directory structure.

   You can open Windows Explorer using one of the following methods:

   • Press the following keys down at the same time: + E.
   • Right click on the My Computer icon located in the upper left corner of the screen, and select Explore.
   • Open the Start menu in the lower left corner of the screen, and select Programs>Windows Explorer.
2. Go to a directory such as C:\Documents or C:\My Documents or some other similar directory.

   C:\Documents means a directory named Documents on a hard disk drive named C.

   You can go to C:\Documents by first clicking on the C drive and then clicking on the Documents directory.
3. Create a directory. From the menu bar, select File>New>Folder. Call your new directory EraseMe.

   

4. Go to your newly created directory EraseMe. The directory should be empty.
5. Open Notepad. You will use it to create a new file. Notepad can be opened in several ways:
   • Notepad can be found from the Start menu under Programs>Accessories>Notepad.
   • Position the mouse over the right half of Windows Explorer, click once with the right mouse button, and select New>Text Document.
6. Write a few lines of text in Notepad and save the file as testFile.txt inside your EraseMe directory. Remember where the file is located as you will need it later in this lab.
7. The following is a visual representation of C:\Documents\EraseMe\testFile.txt on a local computer.

   Windows Explorer showing the directory structure	Simplified directory structure

   The beginning of the directory structure is called the root. In this case, the root is C:. (The Desktop is actually a directory on the hard disk drive named C. My Computer is not a directory and, therefore, can not be the root of a directory structure. It is Microsoft Windows method for grouping together the different parts of the local computer.) Other root directories on the local computer are A: (for the floppy disk drive) and D:, if it exists.

Navigate through a Directory Structure on a Remote Computer

To be able to find directories and files on a remote computer, you must understand how to navigate through the remote computer's directory structure. This section explains how to navigate through a UNIX environment on a remote computer named dante, using a graphical SFTP program named SSH Secure File Transfer.

SFTP stands for Secure File Transfer Protocol, which is a standardized method (protocol) for transferring files between computers in a secure/encrypted manner.

A remote computer is a computer that you can access (e.g., through a computer network like the Internet), and is not the computer your keyboard is attached to.

1. Start SSH Secure File Transfer , which uses SFTP.
2. Click on the Quick Connect button.

   

3. A window named Connect to Remote Host will pop up. For the host name, enter dante.u.washington.edu and for the user name, enter your UW NetID. If your UW NetID was smith, you would enter the following:

   

   Enter your password in the next pop-up window to finish connecting to dante.

4. You should now see a divided window showing some files and/or directories. The local computer's files and directories are shown on the left while the remote computer's files and directories are shown on the right. At the top and the bottom of the window you can see which computer you have connected to, in this case, dante. In the smaller window on the right, you can see the entire directory path of your current location on the remote computer, e.g., /nfs/guido08/smith. (When you first connect, you will always start in your home directory, which should have the same name as your UW NetID.) There is a similar small window on the left, which corresponds to the directory path of your current location on the local computer. It should currently be empty.

   

   The gray bar located at the bottom of the window is the status bar. It tells you if you are connected to a remote computer, which computer you are connected to, etc.

   You can learn what an icon represents by positioning the mouse over the icon.

5. Open your public_html directory or your student_html directory on the remote computer by double clicking on it. If this directory is empty, the right window should become empty.

   If you go down into the wrong directory, you can go up and out of it by clicking on the Up icon .

   Your public_html (alternatively student_html) directory is a web accessible directory. You see the contents of this directory when you go to http://students.washington.edu/yourUWNetID/.

6. Create a new directory named fit100 inside of your public_html (alternatively student_html) directory. You can use one of following methods:
   • Select Operation>New Folder.
   • Right click inside the files and folder area in the remote side and select New Folder.
   • Click on the New Folder icon on the remote side.
   • Press Ctrl + N.

   Your fit100 directory is the directory where you should put all of your assignments for this course.

7. Create additional directories inside of your fit100 directory. You will need a directory for this lab, which should be named lab1 (since the lab is called Lab 1).

   Your fit100 directory structure should be similar to the following, minus the files:

   

Move Files from the Local Computer to a Remote Computer and Vice Versa

To make your assignments web accessible, which is required for all completed assignments in this course, you must place them in your web accessible directory on dante.

This section covers how to upload and download files and directories to and from a remote computer.

Upload means to transfer files/directories from your local computer to a remote computer (local –> remote). Download means to transfer files/directories from a remote computer to your local computer (remote –> local).

1. Go into your lab1 directory on dante, which should be in your fit100 directory.
2. Using the left half of SSH Secure File Transfer, navigate to where you placed testFile.txt on your local computer by double clicking on the appropriate directories. (Start by double clicking on My Computer.) Your file should be located in the EraseMe directory.
3. Upload your testFile.txt file to your lab1 directory on dante. This can be done by using one of the following methods:
   • Drag the file from the local (left) side to the remote (right) side.
   • Right click on testFile.txt and select Upload.
   • Select testFile.txt and then select Operation>Upload.
   • Select Operation>Upload Dialog…. Find and select the file in the Upload Dialog window.
   • Click on the Upload Dialog icon and then find and select the file in the Upload Dialog window.
   You can upload entire directories using the same method.
4. By uploading your file, you have sent a copy of your file from the local computer to a remote computer. If you look in the Transfer tab in the SSH Secure File Transfer window, you will see the status of your file transfer.
5. Download testFile.txt from the remote computer back to your local computer. This time, place it in a different directory on your local computer, for example, directly in the root directory of C:\.
6. Using SSH Secure File Transfer, practice creating, renaming, and deleting directories on both the local and remote computers, as well as uploading and downloading files and directories. If you are unable to perform these skills, you will have difficulties turning in your assignments for this course.
7. Take the time to download an image or other document from the Internet that that you would like to share with your TA! For example, an image of an interest and/or hobby or the text of a poem.

When you are done, close all SSH windows to log out from the remote computer. Finally, log off the local computer before leaving.

Check List

You do not need to submit anything when you have completed this lab. However, you must be able to perform the skills in this lab order to complete (and sometimes to submit) future assignments.