Introduction

This wiki describes how to develop, deploy and maintain the GridFTP plugin to transfer permissions and access control lists for files during a third party transfer.

Context

The Data Analysis as a Service (DAaaS) system at STFC uses GridFTP nodes to transfer data between storage instances that are connected to virtual machines (VMs) closer to users.

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The system makes use of the third party transfer functionality provided by GridFTP, however this does not transfer posix permissions when the file is transferred - instead it transfers with the permissions of the user who transferred the file.

The DAaaS system works round this by having an additional service for updating the permissions of files that have been transferred so they match the source.

The aim of this project is build a plugin that also transfers permissions when the system initiates a third party transfer (thus making the DAaaS system simpler)

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As well as conventional posix permissions, some of the storage systems use Access Control Lists (ACLs) - the plugin can also replicate ACLs on to the target file as well.