File Transfer Tutorial

Gradescope Upload

So you've finished working on your exercise/homework files on the CSE Linux environment and you're ready to upload them to Gradescope. What's next depends on your setup:

CSE Lab Machines or CSE Linux VM: Open your internet browser of choice (e.g., Firefox), navigate to Gradescope, and upload your files directly from the current machine.
attu: You will first need to transfer your files to your local machine. The sections below will cover how to do this from (1) the command line and (2) a GUI application.

Opening files from Linux on a Windows machine sometimes breaks the line endings (e.g., new lines, carriage returns), so be very careful to NOT open the files after you transfer them to a Windows machine. Directly upload them to Gradescope and check Gradescope's interface (the "Code" tab on your submission) to make sure it is correct.

Command Line Transfer (`scp`)

The following examples will assume the following file structure, where NETID is your CSE NetID and user is your username on your local machine.

File to be transferred on attu: /homes/iws/NETID/333/ex0.c
Directory on local machine for file to be transferred to: C:\Users\user\Documents

Generic `scp` Command

Any scp command should be run from your local machine because there is no URL/IP address to reach your machine from attu.

scp user@host:/path/to/source-file /path/to/destination-folder

user@host should be NETID@attu.cs.washington.edu
/path/to/source-file can be /homes/iws/NETID/333/ex0.c (absolute path) OR 333/ex0.c (relative path, noting that /homes/iws/NETID is your home directory)
/path/to/destination-folder can be C:\Users\user\Documents (absolute path) OR . if you've navigated your local terminal to that directory)

After typing this command, you will be prompted to enter your CSE password before the file is transferred.

You can skip the password step if you add your SSH key to attu. We recommend using the same public key that you generated for your Gitlab setup.

Variations of Interest

Adding the -r flag to scp will recursively traverse a source directory and copy it and its contents to the destination.
- For example, the following command will copy the 333 directory from your attu home directory to your current local directory:
```
scp -r NETID@attu.cs.washington.edu:333/ .
```
The * wildcard can be used in the source path to copy all files that match to the destination. Multiple examples given below:
- The following command will copy all of the files within the 333 directory on attu to your current local directory (note, doesn't copy the 333 folder itself or folders within 333):
```
scp NETID@attu.cs.washington.edu:333/* .
```
- The following command will copy all of the C source files (i.e., files ending in .c) within the 333/ex1/ directory on attu to your current local directory:
```
scp NETID@attu.cs.washington.edu:333/ex1/*.c .
```
- The following command will copy all of the text files (i.e., files ending in .txt) from all exercise subdirectories of 333 (i.e., subdirectories starting with ex) on attu to your local directory:
```
scp NETID@attu.cs.washington.edu:333/ex*/*.txt .
```

Graphical User Interface (Cyberduck)

Many such applications exist (e.g., WinSCP, FileZilla) but we are showing Cyberduck here because it works on both Windows and MacOS. They should all work similarly for secure file transfer.

A GUI file transfer tool can be especially helpful when copying many files, entire directories, or when you want to visually confirm what was transferred. Cyberduck uses the same underlying SSH/SFTP protocol as scp; the difference is only the interface.

Installation

Navigate to the Cyberduck website.
Download the installer for your operating system.
Run the installer and complete the installation.
Open the Cyberduck application.

Connecting to `attu`

When accessing attu from off-campus, you will need to run the Husky OnVPN (BIG-IP Edge Client). See Husky OnVPN for more details.

Click Open Connection (or File > Open Connection).
Select SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol).
Enter the server address: attu.cs.washington.edu
Enter your CSE credentials:
- Username: your CSE NetID
- Password: your CSE password
Click Connect.

Opening a Local File Browser

Open a second browser window using File > New Browser.
In the new browser, choose Open Connection > Local to browse your local filesystem.

You should now have one Cyberduck browser window for the remote attu server and one for your local machine. Files can be transferred between them using drag and drop.