Filesystem and user directory#
Your notebook server is a linux “virtual machine” with its own filesystem. You are not on a shared server; you are on your own private server.
The easiest way to move files in and out of your home directory is via the JupyterLab web interface. Drag a file into the file browser to upload, and right-click to download back out. You can also open a terminal via the JupyterLab launcher and use this to ssh / scp / ftp to remote systems. However, you can’t ssh in!
Your Home Directory#
Your username is jovyan
, and your home directory is /home/jovyan
.
This is the same for all users, but no one else can see or access the files in your home directory.
/home/jovyan
is a persistant network-attached drive. Any files you put there will be there when you
log out and log back into the JupyterHub.
The /home/jovyan
space is intended only for notebooks and code. It’s not an appropriate place to store
datasets, as it can get really expensive (and slow) when used that way.
Modify your bash profile#
You may edit your bash profile at ~/.bash_profile
.
However, be careful because some edits may have unanticipated consequences.
For example, if you change your shell such that it can no longer launch a Jupyter Server, then your session will fail to start.
This may happen if you change your default shell to something like zsh.
If you change your ~/.bash_profile
and something suddenly breaks, try reverting the change to this file.
If your session can no longer start, email support as this file may need to be manually edited or deleted.
The /tmp
Directory#
Any directory outside of /home/jovyan
is emphemeral on Cloud-hosted JupyterHubs. This means if you
add data or scripts under a writeable directory like /tmp/myfile.txt
it will not be there when you
log out and log back in.
Nevertheless, /tmp
is a convenient location for storing data temporarily
because it is a fast SSD drive. The space available depends on your server but will generally be much
larger than /home/jovyan
(50-100s of GB).