smbclient is an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) like interface to Windows shared drives. You can use it to access your shared network drive (N Drive) directly from the HPC clusters.

Connecting to the server

$ smbclient -U <username> //ds.leeds.ac.uk/shared/

List files and directories

Show a long format list of all the files in your current directory on shared storage

> ls

Change directory

Change to a different directory on shared storage

> cd <directory>

Change local directory

Change to a different directory on ARC

> lcd

Download a single file

Transfer a file from shared storage to ARC

> get <filename>

Download multiple files

Transfer multiple files from shared storage to ARC. This ensures all sub directories and files are transferred (recurse ON) and it doesn't prompt you for confirmation of each file (prompt OFF).

> recurse ON
> prompt OFF
> cd 'path\to\remote\dir'
> mget *

You can either use a wildcard (*) to transfer all files and sub directories, or give a space separated list of files you want to transfer.

Upload a file

This transfers a file from ARC to shared storage

> put <filename>

Upload multiple files

Transfer multiple files from ARC to shared storage. Works like mget.

> mput *

Further help

smbclient has a help system

> help

gives a list of all commands and

> help [command]

tells you about a command.

There's a fairly technical How To on how to access Windows shares using smbclient from the Linux Documentation Project.