This is specifically for Rutgers Computer Science students. I remember when I first worked with ilab accounts. There weren’t any tutorials and I always had to ask someone how to do some common tasks. Let’s record this.

0. Specifications for your laptop

Your laptop should have a UNIX operating system (Macbooks / any Linux flavor) to follow this tutorial.

If your laptop has a windows operating system, I really would suggest heading over to the CAVE, and getting someone to install Linux onto your laptop. The easiest flavor of Linux to use is Ubuntu. This will make your CS curriculum

1. rsync

$ ls

localDirectory $ rsync -a ./localDirectory netid@ilabmachine:/ilab/users/netid

This is for copying (or “pushing”) your local files to the remote ilab machine.

Local → Remote

For many Rutgers C assignments, your instructor will tell you that you need to make sure your program compiles on the ilab accounts. This is your first step.

Maybe you need to go the opposite direction. You are “pulling” files from the remote machine to your local machine. You just swap the values.

Remote → Local

$ls

locDir $ rsync -a netid@ilabmachine:/ilab/users/netid/remoteDir ./locDir

For more information on rsync, check out digital ocean’s tutorial.

2. ssh

$ ssh netid@ilabmachine

So how do you enter the ilab machine to check on the files that you just copied over? You need to ssh into the ilab machine. Your terminal will ask you for your account credentials. Enter those when prompted.

What is SSH?

Basically, you can imagine it as “logging on” to another computer. After you ssh, you’ll be able to access all of that computer’s files in your terminal.

For a list of ilab machines, use any one of these.

3. tar

$ ls

your_project_directory $ tar cfz whatever.tgz your_project_directory $ls

your_project_directory whatever.tgz

For submission, your professor often will ask you to “tar” a project. As a quick summary, tarring preserves that directory’s file structure as well as other associated meta data.

Check this out for a great explanation of tar.