Questions and answers
228How do I copy a file from a colleague's directory on the Unix system?
The commands described below need to be entered while logged in to the Unix server. Normally you'll see a prompt ending with $ when the command interpreter (or shell) is ready for another command.
Your colleague should first make sure that their file can be accessed by other people, by giving the command
chmod a+r filename
in their account.
Then (in your account) you should issue the command
cp ~theirusername/filename .
(Note the full-stop (period) after a space at the end of this last command)
For example, suppose the other person's username is ano23 and the file was called project.pdf, the command would be
cp ~ano23/project.pdf .
The various parts of this command are explained as follows:
~ano23 (a tilde symbol followed by ano23) means "ano23's home directory";
/project.pdf means "the file project.pdf within the ano23 home directory"
. (a dot or period) means "the directory I'm in now", that is the destination directory for the copied file.
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