cp

Somewhere on the Gladlyville U servers I have a folder filled with hundreds of quiz questions. Somewhere else on those servers I have a folder filled with gigs and gigs of video lectures. One of my tasks this week is to move them to different folders on those same servers.

We are changing over from one LMS to another this semester, and the painful level has been fairly high. Compounding the pain is a deadline: everything on the old LMS will go away at the end of the month. I have eleven years' worth of stuff stored in that old LMS, and moving it over is a big job.

There are some elements of the task that are straightforward. It's only mildly frustrating to copy over the folders where course readings and lecture materials are stored. (The process derails when it encounters links, but I can mostly work around that.) Unfortunately, the assignments and quizzes have to be copied one by one. And according to the instructions for saving my videos, I ought to download them all and then re-upload them to a new site.

Somewhere behind the curtain there are directories from which all of my quiz questions and all of my videos are accessible, and SOMEONE on campus has write permission for those directories. SOMEONE on campus could type a line of code that looked something like this--

> cp /old_lms/dr_gladly/quizzes/* /new_lms/dr_gladly/quizzes

-- and save me hours of work.

But for whatever reason, that option is not on offer. 

I am trying not to be too whiny about it. I have 15 courses with materials stored in the old LMS. I've finished transferring five of them. I have big chunks of three other classes done. I have to get it done, so I'll get it done.

It would be much nicer if there were a more efficient option available, though.