ARCHIVED: Using the CFS, how can I share files with another user?

Note: UITS has retired CFS. A new file storage service for researchers became available in a public test phase in fall 2005; for more information, see At IU, what is the Research File System (RFS)? Also, the AFS cell ovpit@indiana.edu is being decommissioned. It will be replaced by the OpenAFS cell IU.EDU.

Assuming that both you and the user who wants to access your files have a CFS account, there are a couple of ways of doing this:

Sharing via CFS Scratch

You can place the files you want to share in the CFS Scratch area, where they will become visible to the other user (as well as to everyone else). If you want the files to be visible only to specific CFS user(s), refer to the method described below.

Note: On January 15, 2006, UITS retired the CFS Scratch service. CFS became read-only at that time as part of ongoing changes to Indiana University's file storage environment. For more information, see the Knowledge Base document ARCHIVED: How is file storage changing at IU?

Sharing by giving explicit permissions on a folder to specific user(s)

Note: You must know the CFS username of the user with whom you want to share files.

The best way to share a file only with a specific user is to create a new, empty folder called share in your top-level CFS folder, then give read permission to another user for this folder, any files you create in this folder, and any subfolders you create in this folder. Following is a step-by-step description of creating the folder and setting the appropriate permissions:

1. In the top level of your CFS space, create a new folder called share. You can do this while connected to the CFS via a mapped drive under Windows, via an AppleShare volume mounted under Mac OS, or via CFSWeb.
   
   
2. Use Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer to access the shared CFS space via CFSWeb by connecting to: http://cfs.iu.edu/share Log in with your CFS username and password.
   
   
3. You should now find yourself at the top level of the CFS space, with folders a through z. Find your own folder by descending down the tree. You do this by clicking successively the first two letters of your username. For example, if your username is myuser, first click m, then click y. Then locate your CFS folder among other users whose usernames start with the same first two letters as yours.
   
   
4. Click the checkbox to the left of your username.
   
   
5. You will now change the permissions on your top-level directory to allow another user to enter that directory and list its contents. Click the Change ACL button in the CFSWeb toolkit at the bottom.
   
   
6. On the resulting page, click the down arrow on the lower right to get to the long form of the ACL page.
   
   
7. Locate the first row in the "type" column with the word user visible in a pull-down list. On this row, in the empty box in the "name" column (the column next to "type"), enter the name of the CFS user to whom you want to give access. In that same row, click the boxes in the "read" and "search" columns.
   
   
8. Click the Change ACL button at the bottom. You should see a message confirming the ACL change.
   
   
9. Click Return to CFSWeb Home. This will place you back where you were before.
   
   
10. Move to your own CFS space by clicking your username.
    
    
11. Now you can add read permissions to the share folder. Click the checkbox to the left of the share folder, then click Change ACL at the bottom. Once again, click the down arrow in the bottom right to get to the long form.
    
    
12. You will now add permissions so that the other user can get into your share folder. As before, locate the first row in the "type" column with the word user visible in a pull-down list. In this row, enter the name of the CFS user to whom you want to give read access. In that same row, click the boxes in the "read" and "search" columns, then click Change ACL at the bottom. You should see a message confirming the ACL change.
    
    
13. Click the Return to CFSWeb Home button at the bottom. Click the checkbox to the left of the share folder again, then click Change ACL at the bottom.
    
    
14. Now you will add permissions to the share folder so that all new files created in this folder will inherit the right permissions. Click the down arrow on the bottom right again to get to the long form.
    
    
15. At the top of the window, click to new files in the directory. Repeat the same process as in step 12 to add the username of the other CFS user, except click only the box under "read" this time. Click the Change ACL button again. You should see a message confirming the ACL change.
    
    
16. Now you must change the permissions so that all subfolders created under share inherit the right permissions. Click Return to CFSWeb Home one more time, then click the checkbox to the left of share. Click Change ACL, then click the down arrow to get to the long form.
    
    
17. Click to new directories in directory. Repeat step 15, except this time, after adding the name of the user, click the boxes under both "read" and "search". Click Change ACL. You should see a message confirming the ACL change.

This completes the process of giving the other user read permission to the folder share and to any files and subfolders you may create within share. For instructions on how the user can access the folder and its contents, see the Knowledge Base document How can I access shared files in another user's CFS space?

Note: Please be aware that permission/access control list (ACL) change in CFS is an involved topic. You should carefully read a more thorough discussion of permission change in the document "How can I give read/write permissions to someone else?", at:

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