The Linux Lab's hosts have been fully updated to new Shuttle PCs, for remote access please use these stellar hostnames: altair, ankaa, antares, arcturus, avior, bellatrix, betelgeuse, canopus, capella, deneb, dubhe, hadar, mimosa, naos, polaris, procyon, rastaban, saiph, sirius, ursa.

The CS Labs staff maintain dropbox services for instructors and students in the computer science department. To access them from a machine inside the lab:

The dropbox server is ja-tp2.cs.uchicago.edu as of 2 October 2009.

Each dropbox has two accounts, one for the students to submit work, and another for TAs to retrieve work. Please ask a tutor if you have any questions regarding specific accounts (e.g., forgotten password) or dropboxes, as this information will not be documented below.

Connecting from an Apple computer with AFP (Apple Filing Protocol):

  1. From Finder, go to the "Go" menu, and select the "Connect to Server..." command
  2. Enter the server address and click "Connect"
  3. Select "Registered User" and use the login given above
  4. Select PHYS 250 when asked for a volume to mount

The student will be warned that he does not have sufficient privileges to open the folder, but that is normal and correct. Instead he will see a folder icon with a small plus sign in the corner. Dragging and dropping a file icon onto the folder icon will copy the file over. An error will be generated if a file of that name already exists within the dropbox.

The TA will be able to view the directory in Finder and download from it in the same way any local file can be moved or copied.

Connecting from a Windows or Linux/Unix PC:

The dropbox server is configured so that your working directory should be set to the dropbox directory itself upon login, but if this fails you must manually navigate to the path given above.

The default text-based sftp programs on Mac and Windows are not recommended, as they are feature-poor and lack convenient features such as tab-completion. However, we have provided instructions for these programs below because they are nearly guaranteed to be available on any Mac or Linux installation.

Using the default command-line sftp client on Mac OS X or Linux:

  1. Execute the following command, replacing "user" and "server" with the appropriate names: "sftp user@server"
  2. Navigate to the dropbox directory using "ls" to list each directory's contents, and "cd" to change directories
  3. Use the "put" command to upload a file. Students will not be able to "ls" the dropbox directory itself.
  4. TAs will additionally be able to download files from the dropbox using the "get" or "mget" commands"

Additional information about "sftp" command can be found in its manual page. Execute "man sftp" to read it.

Unlike the default sftp client, the default scp client is the recommended command-line program for accessing the dropbox via SCP.

Using the default command-line scp client on Mac OS X or Linux:

  1. To upload files from a terminal run this command, replacing the placeholders as appropriate: "scp /path/to/homework user@server:/path/to/dropbox"
  2. To download files, run this command: "scp user@server:/path/to/dropbox/* /path/to/destination" Some shells (e.g., zsh) will require the wildcard asterisk to be escaped with a backslash.

Students can check the exact path of the dropbox using sftp.

Have questions or suggestions about dropboxes? Let us know.