Transfer Files between CHTC and your Computer

1. Transferring Files

To transfer files to and from CHTC, you will need the same username and hostname information for logging in, as well as understanding where your files are and where you would like them to go.

A. On the command line

On Mac, Linux, or modern Windows (10+) systems, you can use the "Terminal" application and the scp command to copy files between your computer and CHTC servers.

Your computer to CHTC

First, open the "Terminal" application and navigate to the directory with the files or directories you want to transfer. Then, use this command to copy these files to CHTC:

$ scp file username@hostname:/home/username

If you would like these files to end up in a different directory inside your home directory, just add it to the path at the end of the command.

CHTC to your computer

Open the "Terminal" application. Do NOT log into CHTC. Instead, navigate to where you want the files to go on your computer. Then, use this command to copy these files there:

$ scp username@hostname:/home/username/file ./

Again, for many files, it will be easiest to create a compressed tarball (.tar.gz file) of your files and transfer that instead of each file individually.

B. Using a file transfer program (Windows/Mac)

Windows and Mac users can also use special programs to help them transfer files between their computers and CHTC. For Windows, we recommend WinSCP. It requires the same information as Putty (hostname, username), and once it's set up, looks like this:

The left window is a directory on your computer, the right window is your home directory in CHTC. To move files between the two, simply drag and drop.

There are other programs besides WinSCP that do this. Another that works on Mac and Windows is called Cyberduck.

C. Transferring Multiple Files

If you are transferring many files, it is advantageous to compress them into a single compressed file, in order to facilitate transferring them. Place all the files you need in a directory, and then either zip it or use the "tar" command to compress them:

$ tar czf data_files.tar.gz file_directory/

To untar or unzip files on the submit server or head nodes, you can use either:

[alice@submit]$ tar xzf data_files.tar.gz

or

[alice@submit]$ unzip data_files.zip

2. Creating and Editing Files in CHTC

Once you have logged in to a CHTC server, you can edit files from the command line, by using a command line file editor. Some common editing programs are:

• nano
• vi
• emacs

nano is the most beginner-friendly, and emacs is the most advanced. This Software Carpentry lesson describes how to use nano, and there are many other resources online with instructions for these text editors.

Some of the file transfer programs mentioned above allow you to edit files on CHTC servers through the interface.