Tools & FAQ

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General

	I need to copy stuff to CASTOR - how to use tbct.py
	How do I connect my portable PC in the testbeam area?

Copy to CASTOR: tbct

If you want to copy your files to CASTOR, that is files other then the ones which are regularly copied by the online team (check with us please!), you can use a tool which we normally use on the testbeam machines. The tool is called tbct. tbct is a python script and should run almost on any Linux where the CASTOR command line tools are available. It allows to synchronize either interactively or automatically a directory tree on a local disk and on a CASTOR disk. It makes sure that files are only removed once they are safely on tape ("migrated") in CASTOR.

Just typing tbct will show you the option which are pretty much self-explanatory. Note that you need the correct privileges to read and write (locally and on CASTOR)

The tool is pretty robust. It will ignore symbolic links, zero-length files (which CASTOR does not allow) and other non-regular files. It will only remove files, which have been marked migrated in CASTOR and which have exactly the same length.

It has also advanced options to collect small files into archives etc...

Please give it a try - it tries to avoid many of the common pitfalls with CASTOR. For example, it is usually a very bad idea to many small (< 1 MB) files to CASTOR. Doing so will result in dreadful performance in complaints from the CASTOR operations team.

Options:

-r          recurse through directories (create them in CASTOR if necessary)
-i          interactive mode
-t          test mode: "dry run" just print what would be done
-s         save files from local to CASTOR
-c         remove local files, if they are in identical length, migrated on CASTOR

To connect a Portable PC

You will have to register your portable computer with CERN IT/CS. Be sure to add both interface cards the wired and the wireless. Contact the support team if you do not know which fixed sockets to used for wired laptop network.

This page last edited by Name on June 20, 2006 .