information technology central services at the university of michigan
IFS Overview

R1070 • September 2005

NOTE: This document is also available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

Table of Contents


What Is IFS?

Just as Information Technology Central Services' (ITCS) e-mail service lets you access your e-mail from different computers at different locations, the Institutional File System (IFS) lets you access your documents and files from different computers at different locations. IFS is a central file storage, sharing, and retrieval system that you can access from Macintosh, Windows, and Unix computers.

^ Table of Contents

Your Home Directory

Your personal storage space on IFS is called your "home directory." Students who are listed by their department as "Active in Program" and all faculty and regular staff on the Ann Arbor campus automatically receive an IFS home directory as part of their Basic Computing Package. You receive a quota of storage space in your IFS home directory. You can purchase additional space if you wish. See How to Get More IFS Space for details. Your IFS home directory is created with some generic folders for your use. You get the following folders:

  • Public. Any IFS user in the world can see that you have a Public folder inside your IFS home directory and can read the documents inside it. No one other than you, however, can make changes to, add, or delete documents.

  • Shared. Any U-M IFS user can see that you have a Shared folder inside your IFS home directory. No one other than you, however, can make changes to, add, or delete documents.

  • Private. Any IFS user can see that you have a Private folder inside your IFS home directory. If they open that folder from a Macintosh computer or a PC and look inside, they will see the names of folders, but will not be able to see the contents. No one other than you can make changes to, add, or delete documents.

  • Network Trash Folder. This folder is for Macintosh system use only.

If you use Pine for e-mail or trn for Usenet news, other folders (for example, mail and news) may be created for you when you use those programs. It's best to just leave these folders alone; they are for the use of those programs only.

^ Table of Contents

What You Can Do With IFS

IFS is essentially a file storage medium; it gives you a central, convenient place to store files and documents. Here's what you can do with your IFS space:

  • Web publishing. You can publish your own home page on the web by using the Public folder inside your home directory. Create a folder called html inside your Public folder, and put your web page inside. For more detail, see the Publishing Your Web Site Using Your Home Directory section of Using Your IFS Home Directory Over the Web with mFile (S4311).

  • File storage and access from multiple locations. You can access files in your IFS home directory from any computer with an Internet connection and the appropriate software installed (see Connecting to IFS for several connection methods.) This means you don't need to carry diskettes or other storage media around with you.

    You don't have to worry about files on diskettes being damaged or lost, either. A benefit of IFS is that the files are backed up regularly for you. (See Backups of Your Files in IFS for details.)

  • File sharing. You can put files in your IFS home directory, or in other directories on IFS, for others to share. This is a good alternative to sending e-mail attachments, particularly when several people need access to the same file. IFS can serve as a shared work space for a group of people.

^ Table of Contents

How to Get More IFS Space

To get additional personal file storage space, you'll need to increase the amount in your subscription to IFS. You can do this on the web. There is a minimal monthly charge for additional IFS space. Pricing information is on the web site where you increase your IFS subscription (see below).

  1. Use your web browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer or Safari for Macintosh) to connect to this URL:

    https://accounts.www.umich.edu/umce-bin/umce

  2. To see your account information, you will need to log in.

    1. In the uniqname field, type your uniqname.

    2. In the password field, type your UMICH password.

    3. Click the Log in button.

    Your UMCE balances and subscriptions will be displayed.

  3. Under the Subscriptions heading will be an item for your IFS Home Directory Filespace. Click the modify link to the right of this item.

  4. From the Select New Size pop-up menu, select the amount of IFS space you want. (Note the pricing information at the bottom of the page.)

  5. Under the Save Changes heading, click the Resize Home Directory button.

  6. When you are finished, click logout.

^ Table of Contents

Connecting to IFS

NOTE: Depending on how you connect to IFS, you may see a number of files with names that begin with a period or dot. You can just ignore these files. They are created by the system and are required for use of some ITCS computing services.
From the Web
The easiest way to get to your IFS home directory is to use mFile on the web. MFile is at this URL: http://mfile.umich.edu/

See Using Your IFS Home Directory Over the Web with mFile (S4311) for instructions.

Windows
ITCS recommends that you install the Windows Internet Access Kit (WIAK). It installs an ITCS Home Directory (sftp) shortcut; in the UM Internet Access Kit folder on your desktop. This shortcut opens a connection to your home directory using SSH Secure Shell. For details about using SSH Secure Shell to copy files to and from your home directory, see Using SSH Secure Shell to Transfer Files with sftp [Windows] (S4299). (If you do not use the shortcut, use SSH to connect to the hostname sftp.itd.umich.edu.)
Macintosh
ITCS recommends that you install the Macintosh Internet Access Kit (MIAK). It includes Fugu for Mac OS X (also available free from http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/). Fugu is an SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) program that allows you to copy files to and from your home directory.

Fugu has built-in Help. From the Help menu, select Fugu README. To connect to your IFS home directory with Fugu, use sftp.itd.umich.edu as the host name and your uniqname as the user name.

^ Table of Contents

Group Directories

You can arrange to have a group IFS directory -- to use as a shared work space, as a means of publishing on the web, or for some other purpose -- for your department, unit, or student organization. Also, faculty members can have an IFS group directory for a class that they teach. To get a group IFS directory, contact the ITCS Accounts Office at 764-8000. You will be asked to fill out a form, then the directory will be created and a directory name assigned to your group. The form can be downloaded from the web; see IFS Group or Course Home Directory Application (R1132).

^ Table of Contents

Navigating IFS

IFS is U-M's implementation of the AFS file system. Like most file systems, it is organized by directories. At the AFS root level directory, you can connect to implementations of AFS worldwide. The first layer of directories in the AFS file space contains what are called cells. A cell is an administrative domain and is generally controlled by a company, university, department, or other large group of users. ITCS manages the umich.edu cell for the use of the U-M community. There are other cells on campus. For example, the College of Engineering manages the engin.umich.edu cell.

Within the umich.edu cell are five directories: class, group, system, um, and user.

diagram of afs showing the umich.edu cell.

Within the user directory, there are 26 folders, one for each letter of the alphabet. Within each of those folders are 26 folders, again one for each letter of the alphabet. Individual user home directories are inside, filed by the first two letters of the person's uniqname. For example, to find the home directory of someone whose uniqname is bjensen, you would go to the user directory, then open the b directory, then the j directory.

People generally talk about locations in IFS in terms of pathnames. A pathname is basically the path one takes (or the path your computer takes) to get to the directory or folder you want. For example, the pathname to bjensen's home directory would be /afs/umich.edu/user/b/j/bjensen.

^ Table of Contents

Backups of Your Files in IFS

All the files on the Institutional File System (IFS) are backed up regularly for your security and convenience.

  • Daily backups. Daily backup tapes are kept for one week.

  • Weekly backups. Weekly backup tapes are kept for six months.

Should you accidentally delete, change, or otherwise destroy files in your IFS home directory, you can get the files restored from the backup tapes. You can access the daily backup yourself; IFS staff members can restore files from the weekly backup tapes for you. For details, see IFS File Backup and Restore (S4110).

^ Table of Contents

Controlling Access to Your Files

Inside your home directory are some folders with pre-set permissions. Your Private folder, for example, is set so that no one but you can see and make changes to documents and files inside it. You also have a Shared folder and a Public folder. Note that others cannot see files placed directly in your home directory, so it's best to use the folders provided for you if you want to share files. You may find the preset folders meet your needs. If you wish, though, you can set permissions yourself.
From the Web
You can use mFile on the web to set and change permissions on your IFS folders. See the Setting Folder Permissions section of Using Your IFS Home Directory Over the Web with mFile (S4311).
Using Unix
You can control whether other people can see the files and documents in the folders inside your IFS home directory, whether they can make changes to them, and more through the use of Access Control Lists (ACLs). An ACL is a list of uniqnames and/or protection groups to which access rights have been assigned. (A protection group -- or pts group -- is similar to an e-mail group except that it is a list of uniqnames rather than a list of e-mail addresses; it is used to assign permissions to a group of people.) ACLs are set for folders.

For example, you might create a folder in your IFS home directory that you want to use for a group project. You could then set ACLs for that folder to allow only your group members to see what is inside it and make changes. For how to set and change ACLs, see Using Access Control Lists (ACLs) With IFS Directories and Folders (S4111).

If you find yourself needing to set ACLs on a folder to more than three or four people, consider using a pts group. This can be especially helpful if members of the group to which you want to grant access changes over time. See Creating and Administering Protection (pts) Groups (S4033) for how to create and manage pts groups.

^ Table of Contents

Additional Resources

Visit ITCS's Information System to obtain ITCS computer documentation and other resources. A list of relevant documents follows:

We welcome your comments; please send e-mail.

ITCS's Online Help Desk provides a variety of computing help resources.

For further help with IFS, send e-mail or phone (734) 764-HELP.

^ Table of Contents

Appendix: File Sharing Tips

When you share files with others, it helps to keep in mind what platform (that is, Macintosh or Windows) and what software they use. You may need to save files differently in order to share them with others.
Windows and Macintosh
Windows and Macintosh computers save files in different formats. If, for example, you use Windows and the person you want to share a file with uses a Macintosh, you may need to save your document in a format readable by Macintosh computers -- or vice versa -- before copying it to your IFS space. Microsoft Word, for example, offers a variety of formats in the Save and Save As dialog boxes. Select the appropriate one from the Save File Type drop-down list.
Software Version
Older versions of software generally cannot open documents created by newer versions of that software. If you use a newer version of Microsoft Word, for example, and the person with whom you want to share a file uses an older version, you should save your document in the version of Word that person uses (select it in the Save As dialog box) before copying it to IFS.
Filename Extensions
If you share files with Windows users, you may want to use DOS-type filenames even if you work on a Macintosh. The extension part of the file name -- a dot followed by an abbreviation -- indicates the type of file. Here are just a few samples of filename extensions:

Extension Type of Document
.doc Microsoft Word documents
.wp WordPerfect documents
.xlt or .xls Microsoft Excel documents

.ppt or .pps

 Microsoft PowerPoint presentations
.pdf Portable Document Format
.htm or .html HTML files
.jpg JPEG graphic files
.gif GIF graphic files
.txt text-only files
.rtf Rich Text Format
.exe an executable file for Windows
.sea Self Extracting Archive

^ Table of Contents

ITCS
Information Technology Central Services at the University of Michigan

ITCS Home  |  University of Michigan