Share data files with your users

Sometimes Hub Admins might need to distribute a set of files to all users, rather than each user re-downloading the same dataset. This is particularly useful for educational use cases, where you might be teaching a course that reads a common dataset.

Tip

If you are teaching with large datasets, you might run out of memory! So consider teaching with just a subset of data before distributing large datasets to your users.

The shared directory

There are two folders that are used together to allow administrators to share data files with all users.

shared

All users have a directory called shared in their home directory. This is a read-only directory - users and administrators can not write to it. However, anybody can read from the shared directory.

Note

The shared-readwrite folder appears for Hub Admins only.

shared-readwrite

(administrators only) Admins also have a directory called shared-readwrite in their home directory. This is the same folder as the shared directory, but writeable! Any file admins write here will be immediately visible in all users’ shared directories.

Example workflow

To share datasets with users, Hub Admins should place the dataset in the ~/shared-readwrite directory. If they are distributing notebook / content that reads this dataset, it should refer to files in the ~/shared/ that is readable by all Hub Users and not ~/shared-readwrite. This will prevent accidental deletion or overwriting between Hub Admins.

Tip

It is the responsibility of the Hub Admins delete files in the shared-readwrite directory when no longer needed to minimize cloud billing costs. Hub Admins are responsible for managing storage costs and files stored in shared-readwrite.

The shared-public directory

Note

Available upon request

The shared-public directory is available with read/write access to all Hub Users. Any user can create, read, update and delete files in this folder. Hub Admins should caution their users to take greater care not to overwrite or delete other people’s work.

Tip

It is the responsibility of the Hub Admins delete files in the shared-public directory when no longer needed to minimize cloud billing costs. Hub Admins are responsible for managing storage costs and files stored in shared-public.

The allusers directory

Note

Available upon request

Hub Administrators might need to share data files with the users, and this files must only be visible to the users that they’re addressed to. For example, uploading graded notebook assignments in each user’s home directory.

They may also need to access all users’ home directories to perform administrative tasks, such as cleaning up files or managing user data.

If such a workflow is needed, then an additional allusers directory can be enabled for administrators only, where all the Hub users’ directories are accessible to read and modify. Please reach out to us if you’d like this feature enabled.

Caution

This feature should be used with extra caution! Please keep in mind that this feature enables admins to access all users’ home directories.

Performing administrative actions as a Hub Admin should be done with great care. Respect the privacy of others and think before you act.