AFS Course Space

This page will describe the structure of the AFS shared spaces given to courses and will explain the process for setting up your account to use it.

Introduction

Prior to 2013, Duke's public computers used the Andrew File System to store files. This system allowed individuals to set seven different permissions to each folder within their space. Users could assign permissions to single users or to groups. While this system was extremely flexible, over time, support for it dwindled. In the Spring semester of 2013, Duke switched to CIFS as a file system. While this system has many positive features, it is entirely lacking in the ability to grant permissions to individual folders. It also does not allow for symbolic links. Given these drawbacks, and given the current lack of an alternate way for students and instructors to set up shared course spaces within CIFS, Duke is maintaining a section of AFS-hosted folders, specifically for courses.

Goals

The goals of using the AFS shared spaces are as follows:

• Allow for file sharing from the instructor to all the students in a class
• Allow the instructor and teaching assistants to access course-related files for students - this will facilitate both off-line assistance and grading

AFS Location

The AFS folders are all located at

/afs/acpub.duke.edu/courses/YEAR_SEMESTER/DEPARTMENT/CLASS

For example, the Spring 2013 offering of EGR 103L has a set of folders at

/afs/acpub.duke.edu/courses/2013_spr/egr/103l

Within the CLASS folder, there will be a folder for each section (for example, 002). For Dr. Gustafson's courses, however, students will not need to worry about the section folder, only the CLASS folder.

Personal AFS Folders

For Dr. Gustafson's classes, each student will have a folder within the CLASS folder. The folder will be the same as the student's NET ID. For example, in EGR 103L, a student with a NET ID of mrg would have a folder:

/afs/acpub.duke.edu/courses/2013_spr/egr/103l/mrg

If you find that you do not have a folder, be sure to check the directory. If you are in the correct directory and still do not have a folder, let Dr. G. know.

When these folders are created, permissions are set as follows:

• system:administrators and mrg have all permissions
• the student and the TAs have read, list, insert, delete, write, and lock permissions, but not administer permissions
• no one else has any other permissions

Fortunately, whenever a new folder is created, it will take on the permissions of the folder in which it was created. In other words, as long as the student always first changes into the shared AFS space, everything created there can be seen by the student and the instruction team.

There is also a folder called public within the CLASS directory. FOr this folder,

• system:administrators and mrg have all permissions
• all students and TAs have read and list permissions

This way, files that students need to copy can be hosted in the shared space and all students can copy the file without any chance of accidentally (or intentionally) removing those files.