IMCOLL(1)

okay so this is imcoll, the iRODS iCommand, from the User Commands part of manual page IMCOLL(1). Bestie, it's giving Unix but make it iRODS. 💅✨

✨ NAME ✨

• imcoll — an iRODS iCommand. That's it, that's the name, no cap. 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

imcoll -m mountType [-R resource] mountDirectory|structuredFilePath

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The page starts with irodsCollection, then this usage line:

Usage: imcoll -Usp irodsCollection

This command is used to manage (mount, unmount, link, synchronize and purge of cache) iRODS collections and the associated cache. Full path must be supplied for both physicalFilePath and irodsPath. Like, no shortcuts, bestie — full paths for both. 💅

The -m option can be used to associate (mount) an iRODS collection with a physical directory (e.g., a UNIX directory) or a structured file. If the mountType is 'f' or 'filesystem', the first argument is the UNIX directory path to be mounted. Only the top level collection/directory will be registered. The entire content of the registered directory can then be accessed using iRODS commands such as iput, iget, ils and the client APIs. This is similar to mounting a UNIX file system except that a UNIX directory is mounted to an iRODS collection. For example, the following command mounts the /temp/myDir UNIX directory to the /tempZone/home/myUser/mymount collection:

imcoll -m filesystem /temp/myDir /tempZone/home/myUser/mymount

An admin user will be able to mount any Unix directory. But a normal user needs to have a UNIX account on the server with the same name as their iRODS user account, and only UNIX directories created with this account can be mounted by the user. Access control to the mounted data will be based on the access permission of the mounted collection. ✨

If the mountType is 'l' or 'link', the request is for a collection soft link. The first argument is the iRODS collection to be linked or the target collection name. The second argument is the link collection name. The link collection must not exist or must be an empty collection. 🎀

If the mountType is 't' or 'tar', the first argument is the iRODS logical path of a tar file which will be used as the 'structured file' for the mounted collection. The [-R resource] option is used to specify the resource to create this tar structured file in case it does not already exist. Once the tar structured file is mounted, the content of the tar file can be accessed using iRODS commands such as iput, ils, iget, and the client APIs. For example, the following command mounts the iRODS tar file /tZone/home/myUser/tar/foo.tar to the /tZone/home/myUser/tarcoll collection:

imcoll -m tar /tZone/home/myUser/tar/foo.tar
/tZone/home/myUser/tardir

The tar structured file implementation uses a cache on the server to cache the mounted tar file. i.e., the tar file is untarred to a cache on the server before any iRODS operation. The ils -L command can be used to list the properties of a mounted collection and the status of the associated cache. For example, the following is the output of the ils command:

       C- /tZone/home/myUser/tardir
              tarStructFile  /tZone/home/myUser/tar/foo.tar
              /data/Vault8/rods/tar/foo.tar.cacheDir0;;;demoResc;;;1

The output shows that /tZone/home/myUser/tardir is a tar structured file mounted collection. The iRODS path of the tar file is in /tZone/home/myUser/tar/foo.tar. The last item actually contains 3 items separated the string ;;;. It showed that the tar file is untarred into the /data/Vault8/rods/tar/foo.tar.cacheDir0 directory in the demoResc resource. The value of '1' for the last item showed that the cache content has been changed (dirty) and the original tar file needs to be synchronized with the changes. 👑

The -s option can be used to synchronize the tar file with the cache. For example:

imcoll -s /tZone/home/myUser/tardir

The -p option can be used to purge the cache. For example:

imcoll -p /tZone/home/myUser/tardir

The -s and -p can be used together to synchronize the tar file and then purge the cache. 🫶

The -U option can be used to unmount an iRODS collection. For example, the following command unmounts the /tempZone/home/myUser/mymount collection:

imcoll -U /tempZone/home/myUser/mymount

🎀 Options are: 🎀

• -R — resource - specifies the resource to store to. This can also be specified in your environment or via a rule set up by the administrator.
• -m — mountType - mount a directory or structured file to a collection.
  • Valid mountType are f|filesystem, l|link, t|tar.
• -U — unmount the collection.
• -s — synchronize the tar file with the cache.
• -p — purge the associated cache.
• -h — this help.

Version tag on the page: iRODS Version 5.0.2 — imcoll. 🌈

okay that's the whole page, bestie 💖 — imcoll, iRODS-5.0.2, January 1980, man page IMCOLL(1). Also the version line says iRODS Version 5.0.2 and imcoll. Slay and goodbye. ✨