In my programming class, we have to submit assignments to the linux class server. I have already submitted an assignment and I want to copy the file from the class server and save it to my pc to make sure everything is correct.

The assignment is in the directory:

/~teacher/data/csis296/asst0/coin.cpp

and I want to copy it to my desktop:

C:\Users\Owner\Desktop

I tried cp ~teacher/data/csis296/asst0/coin.cpp C:\Users\Owner\Desktop
but it doesn't seem to do anything. Any help would be appreciated.

It's very probable you have an underprivileged account, and may not have read access. Do they want you & your mates reading the class swat's homework & copying it? Get a usb drive, back up to that, and ask your lecturer for a copy.

I would also point out that is using a unix command (cp) and an M$ windows directory on the same line, which is dim. Don't mix '/' and '\' for directories either. What OS are you in?

If you can view the file from your desktop you could as a last resort take screen caps of the code.

$ scrot

If linux to linux and you have a shell with read access to the file.

(remote machine sending, AFTER receiving is running)
$ nc <IP of receiving machine> 5900 -q 5 < file_you_want.ext

(receiving machine, listens and waits)
$ nc -l -w 300 -p 5900 > file_you_get.ext

Where 5900 is a port and needs to NOT be blocked by firewalls and such. Could technically be any port that the user has access to (typically > 1024 ports). As long as there's nothing else using that port, in the example 5900 is common for VNC type things. And -w is the number of seconds to wait, where 300 is 60 * 5 or 5 minutes. The -q option tells it to exit when complete.

Welcome to LinuxQuestions.

Have you asked your instructor?

How do you submit your assignments to the server?
Do you write your code on lab computers or the server itself?

From your post it appears that you might be connecting to the server with your PC using PuTTY or other client application.

If so PuTTY by itself only allows you to run commands on the server and does not allow you to save files to the PC. PuTTY does have other command line utilities i.e. pscp.exe and psftp.exe where you can download files or there are GUI utilities like filezilla and winscp assuming you can install other applications to your PC.

1 members found this post helpful.

Provided you have access to the server/file on the Linux machine you might try installing WinSCP on your Windows PC.https://sourceforge.net/projects/winscp/ Makes file transfer very easy.

Ken