= Staging input files =

Input files may be "local" (resident on the project server) or "non-local".
For local files, BOINC fills in the download URL, the file size, and the MD5.
For non-local files, you must supply these yourself in the input template.
You can supply multiple URLs if the file is on multiple data servers.

== Staging local input files ==
Before submitting a job, you must '''stage''' its local input files using
{{{
bin/stage_file [--gzip] [--copy] file
}}}
 --gzip:: send the file in compressed form to 7.0+ clients.  Note: you must also include the '''<gzip/>''' attribute for this file in the job's input template (see above).
 --copy:: copy the file from its current location to the BOINC download directory.  The default is to move it.

Note: '''stage_file''' was added to the BOINC trunk on 16 Oct 2012.
If your server code is older than that, use
{{{
cp test_files/12ja04aa `bin/dir_hier_path 12ja04aa`
}}}