2.2.5. Advanced usage: use XRootD to interact with the grid storage system directly

Rather than using GFAL, you could access via the XRootD protocol directly. For example,

XROOTDFS_RDRURL='root://bohr3226.tier2.hep.manchester.ac.uk:1094//dpm/tier2.hep.manchester.ac.uk/home/souk.ac.uk/'
echo 'Hello world' > /tmp/test
xrdcp /tmp/test "$XROOTDFS_RDRURL/$USER-test"
rm -f /tmp/test

And it can also be used interactively, which provides a POSIX filesystem-like experience:

# this command enters an interactive mode
$ xrdfs bohr3226.tier2.hep.manchester.ac.uk 
# how you can ls
[bohr3226.tier2.hep.manchester.ac.uk:1094] / > ls
/SRR
/atlas
/bes
/biomed
/cms
/dteam
/dune
/euclid.net
/eucliduk.net
/fermilab
/gridpp
/hone
/icecube
/ilc
/lhcb
/lsst
/lz
/ops
/pheno
/skatelescope.eu
/souk.ac.uk
/t2k.org
/vo.northgrid.ac.uk
# or cd
[bohr3226.tier2.hep.manchester.ac.uk:1094] / > cd souk.ac.uk
[bohr3226.tier2.hep.manchester.ac.uk:1094] /souk.ac.uk > ls
/souk.ac.uk/erosenberg

2.2.5.1. Definitions

xrdcp

This command is akin to the POSIX cp command. It’s used for copying files and directories within XRootD or between XRootD and local file systems.

xrdfs

This command can be compared to various POSIX file system commands. It allows users to interact with a remote file system using operations similar to those found in POSIX, like listing directories, creating/removing files, etc.