I work on an HPC and often I have to share files with other users. The most approachable solution is to have an external cloud storage and recline back and forth. However there’s some projects that are quite heavy (several TB) and that is unfeasible. We do not have a shared group. The following is the only solution I found which is not to just set al permissions to 777, and I still don’t like it.

Create a directory and set ACL to give access to the selected users. This works fine if the users create new files in there, but it does not work if they copy from somewhere else as default umask is 022. Thus the only appropriate solution is to change default umask to 002, which however affects file creation system wide. The alternative is to change permissions every time you copy something, but you all know very well that is not going to happen.

Does it really have to be such a pain in the ass?

  • ranzispa@mander.xyzOP
    0·
    5 months ago

    A cloud solution is indeed an option, however not a very palatable one. The main problem with a cloud solution would be pricing. From what I can see, you can get 1TB for about 10€/month. We’d need substantially more than that. The cost is feasible and not excessive, but frankly it’s a bit of a joke to have to use someone else’s server when we have our own.

    You want to bypass system level access level restrictions with some form of control but not go through your company’s standard method of doing so because of bureaucracy?

    Yes. Not a company but public research, which means asking for a group change may lead to several people in the capital discussing on whether that is appropriate or not. I’d like this to be a joke, but it is not. We’d surely get access eventually if we do that, but that would lead to the unfortunate side: if we work in that way every new person who has to get in has to wait all that paperwork.

      • ranzispa@mander.xyzOP
        01·
        5 months ago

        I am not bypassing any policy: the HPC Is there to collaborate on and data can be shared. Not having a shared group is not a policy, it’s just that not all users are in the same group and users are added to just one group by default. We are indeed allowed to share files, hell most of the people I want to share stuff with are part of my own research group. ACL is allowed on the HPC. I’m asking how to properly use ACL.

        If you have anything actually useful go ahead, otherwise don’t worry that I know better than you do what I should or should not do.