Course groups

Introduction

Initial setup

• Create the course group membership file (see below for details)
• Send a mail to System Support, requesting they create a group config file for your course, with attributes as listed below.
• Wait for the go-ahead from System Support.
• Log into the course account and run priv update-groups with the prefix attribute - eg priv update-groups osprj
• This will create the group accounts and home directories.
• Members of each group can access now access group home directories from their own account.
• Group home directories take the form /home/<prefix><number> - eg. /home/osprj01

Group attributes

Prefix

The group prefix to which the group number is appended.

Width

The width of the group number appended to the group prefix.

Course

The course code associated with the group.

Config

The full pathname of the group membership file - see below for details.

Expiry

The expiry date of the group accounts - if unspecfied, accounts expire just before the next session starts. This can also be set in the group membership file.

Authorised posters

The users authorised to send email to the virtual mail address group.coursegroup-list.
By default, this is all users within CSE.

Home base

The filesystem the home directories are kept on. The system default is usually fine, but it can be overriddend.

Extra Classes

Any additional UDB classes that allow for things like extra disc quota, or access to specific servers.

Group Description

Defaults to Group NN for $Course if not specified.

The group membership file

The group membership file is the file that you will need to edit to determine group membership and expiry.

File location

1. Create the file as normal in the YYss.work directory.
2. Create a symlink in the main course account home directory, pointing to the file.
   (eg. ln -s /home/cs1234/YYss.work/groups /home/cs1234/groups)
3. Use the pathname of the symlink (/home/cs1234/groups) when requesting CSG to create the attributes file
4. Next session, just repeat steps 1 and 2.

File format

valid_until = 29oct2017 00 = z1234567,z2345678 01 = z3456789,z4567890,z5678901

Managing course groups

Important Notes

• Adding new members to a group, or deleting some members from a group, will retain that group's home account (with all its existing directories and files), and make them accessible to all new members of the group.
• Changing the valid\_until date by itself will not archive old groups even if the old groups and their membership had technically expired, as long as the old existing groups have at least one member in common with the new defined groups.
• Renumbering an existing group will cause the old group account to be cleaned out and archived, and a new group account to be created.