GFAL2-Util

GFAL2-Util are a group of command line tools for file manipulations with any protocol managed by gfal2.

Commands

We list here the list of available commands. For more details about each one of them, run them with the --help flag, or check its man page.

gfal-cat

Dump the content of a file into standard output

gfal-chmod

Change the permission bits of a file*

gfal-copy

Copy a source into a destination. Can chain intermediate destinations. The content may be streamed via the host if the protocol does not support third party copies.

gfal-ls

List the content of a directory

gfal-mkdir

Create a directory

gfal-rename

Rename a file or directory

gfal-rm

Delete a file or directory

gfal-save

Writes into a file what is passed via standard input

gfal-stat

Stats a file or directory. Similar to stat

gfal-sum

Retrieves the checksum of a file*

gfal-xattr

Get all, get or set an extended attribute of a file or directory*. Each protocol support a different set of attributes, but some interesting ones are:

• user.replicas Obtain a TURL from an SRM url, or a list of replicas from an LFC one.
• user.status Obtain if a file is ONLINE, NEARLINE, ONLINE_AND_NEARLINE, or other. Relevant for tape systems, via SRM only.
• user.chksumtype Checksum type associated to a file.
• user.checksum Checksum value associated to a file.

(*) Not supported by all protocols

Legacy commands

Some commands are provided for legacy purposes. The three that have something to do with replicas, can be executed via extended attributes.

gfal-legacy-bringonline

Request the staging of a file into disk from tape. Supported by SRM and, experimentally, by XRootD.

gfal-legacy-register

Add a new replica to a file in a catalog. This is equivalent to

gfal-xattr "lfn://<path>" "user.replicas=+srm://<new-replica>"

The plugin may do some validation of the new replica: file size, checksum...

gfal-legacy-replicas

List replicas for a file in a catalog. This is equivalent to

gfal-xattr "lfn://<path>" "user.replicas"

gfal-legacy-unregister

Remove a replica for a file in a catalog. This is equivalent to

gfal-xattr "lfn://<path>" "user.replicas=-srm://<replica-to-remove>"

The plugin may remove the entry in the catalog when there are no more replicas left.