uberftp client

This page includes the basic commands to use uberftp. For an overview of storage clients, see Storage clients.

Uberftp

Warning

We have observed that uberftp deletes a file after it has unsuccessfully tried to overwrite it. If you write data with uberftp, please make sure you never try to overwrite existing files! :globus-url-copy does not have this bug.

Creating/listing

Note

To run the examples below you need to have a valid proxy, see StartGridSession.

  • Listing directories on dCache:

    $uberftp -ls gsiftp://gridftp.grid.sara.nl:2811/pnfs/grid.sara.nl/data/lsgrid/

  • Create a new directory on dCache:

    $uberftp -mkdir gsiftp://gridftp.grid.sara.nl:2811/pnfs/grid.sara.nl/data/lsgrid/homer/newdir

Transferring data

  • Copy file from dCache to local machine:

    $uberftp gsiftp://gridftp.grid.sara.nl:2811/pnfs/grid.sara.nl/data/lsgrid/homer/zap.tar file:///home/homer/zap.tar

  • Copy file from local machine to dCache:

    $uberftp file:///home/homer/zap.tar gsiftp://gridftp.grid.sara.nl:2811/pnfs/grid.sara.nl/data/lsgrid/homer/zap.tar

Note

The asterisk “*” wildcard (match all characters) works with uberftp. Please use this option with caution, especially when deleting files.

Parallel streams

The GridFTP protocol allows for parallel streaming of data transfers. This makes a transfer more efficient and less susceptible to network errors, especially over long distances. If you have a lot of simultaneous transfers running anyway, increasing the number of streams per transfer will not make a big difference, because the network bandwidth may limit the results.

$uberftp -parallel 4 \
$     gsiftp://gridftp.grid.sara.nl:2811/pnfs/grid.sara.nl/data/lsgrid/homer/zap.tar \
$     file:zap.tar

Results may vary based on circumstances. We suggest a number of 4 streams as a start.

Removing data

  • Remove a file from dCache:

    $uberftp -rm gsiftp://gridftp.grid.sara.nl:2811/pnfs/grid.sara.nl/data/lsgrid/homer/zap.tar

  • Remove whole (non-empty) directory with all content from dCache:

    $uberftp -rm -r gsiftp://gridftp.grid.sara.nl:2811/pnfs/grid.sara.nl/data/lsgrid/homer/testdir/