If you want to be able to initialize a students labtest home directory with certain files or directories when he logs in, simply create a directory called “ltinit” in your labtest directory (/eecs/dept/www/<COURSE>/labtest/ltinit). The directory should be group labtest. ALL the files and directories in this directory readable by group labtest will be automatically copied to the ltinit directory in the student account when they login. The files and directories will all be user readable, writable, and executable (mode 700). Student files will never be overwritten, so if a student starts to modify their copy, and they log back in, the file will not be recopied from the server.

For example:

cd /eecs/dept/www/course/9999/labtest/ltinit
mkdir -p a1
chmod 750 a1
cp ~/a1/a1.java a1
chmod 640 a1/a1.java
chgrp -R labtest ltinit

When the student logs in, he will have a directory in his home directory called “ltinit”. It will contain a directory “a1”. That will contain “a1.java”.

If you are experimenting with this functionality for your course, please consult with tech. We can place a machine into labtest mode to check that your files will be copied in the way you expect.