Disk Quotas at CSE
Some courses allow you more space because they involve the use of particularly large files. You can check your quota using the rquota command (see below).
It is extremely easy to fill up disk space and exceed your quota without realising it. Any file automatically generated by the computer can quickly grow very large, as can graphics files (especially in postscript or bitmap formats). Copious amounts of email, or very large email messages and/or attachments will quickly eat up space while they sit in your mailbox. Web downloads, particularly images and sound, should be treated as a source of future quota problems.
You can get more detailed information by using the disk_guess command (see below) which will list your six biggest files and six biggest directories. If you run disk_guess -p, you will also get a listing of recent file size changes.
How do I check my current Disk Quota?
The rquota command shows your current disk usage. It looks like this:$ rquota
blocks quota limit #warns files quota limit #warns
1243 104448 134448 7 20889 21889
The meanings of the fields are:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| blocks | Number of kilobytes used |
| quota | Number of kilobytes allowed (soft limit) |
| limit | Hard limit (see this section) |
| #warns | Number of days warning before your soft kilobytes limit becomes strict |
| files | Number of files used |
| quota (2) | Number of files allowed (soft limit) |
| limit (2) | Hard limit on files allowed |
| #warns (2) | Number of days warning before your soft files limit becomes strict |
The disk_guess command will give you a breakdown of what your largest files and directories are.
Running disk_guess will produce an output similar to:
You are currently using 2264K which is below your quota of 10240K
Your 6 biggest files are:
208K ( 9.19%) in ./.netscape/cert7.db
148K ( 6.54%) in ./.netscape/cache/1C/cache3B14957C003044B.pdf
48K ( 2.12%) in ./.incoming-mail
40K ( 1.77%) in ./.netscape/history.db
36K ( 1.59%) in ./Library/TEX/SimpleLibrary.mch.prf.0.dvi
32K ( 1.41%) in ./.netscape/cert5.db
Your 6 biggest directories are:
592K (26.15%) in ./.netscape
380K (16.78%) in ./GNUstep
336K (14.84%) in ./GNUstep/Library
328K (14.49%) in ./GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker
288K (12.72%) in ./JavaFiles
244K (10.78%) in ./Library
You have 732K used up in dot files (or directories) larger than 20K.
The dot files are:
92K in ./.kde
592K in ./.netscape
48K in ./.incoming-mail
The above shows that you have about 200K (8.8%) used in netscape cache files. These are almost certainly unnecessary.
To remove them, run rm -r .netscape/cache/*You can also visit the accinfo website for a web interface.
See the Resource Quotas Policy for information on where the disk quota limit number comes from.
(advanced) If you wish to find out the breakdown of UDB classes that your quota allocation comes from, run: acc explain=dlimit.
If acc and rquota show different numbers, then you probably have a preserved disk quota, which is only temporary at the start of sessions to iron out ripples in quotas as class allocations vary.
Why am I over quota? What changed?
First, you may have created a new file that is quite large and this is why you are over quota. You can check for such things with disk_guess.Alternatively, your quota may have decreased because your account classes have changed. If you are student, this will happen after exams finish when your membership in subject-based account classes expires.
Please note that your account quota is set to hold the files you need to use now. You are encouraged to remove old files when you have finished the subject that they applied to.
Quota is not provided so you can keep old work in your home directory. Presently, our backups keep one complete copy of your account every month, or so. If your account is full of old files they will continue to be backed up needlessly.
If you remove old files they should continue to be available from backups should you need to access them.
How do I get more Disk Quota?
You cannot purchase additional disk quota.Only staff and research students can get extra disk quota. They should consult the Extra Disk Space page for more information. Note that you must have your request approved by your academic supervisor.
If you are a student your quota is determined by the subjects you are studying. If there is a problem with the amount a subject provides then we can increase the amount when asked to by the Lecturer in charge.
Quotas on other filesystems
Some people have directories other than their home directory.To check the disk quota on that filesystem, run: rquota -f /path/to/filesystem. You don't have to be on the fileserver to run it. The path to the filesystem is usually the full path without your username on the end.
So, say you have files on /srvr/username, you would run:
$ rquota -f /srvr
What is the difference between soft and hard limits?
To help stop you being surprised by hitting your disk quota, there is a small amount of flexibility.Your soft limit is your actual quota, you can actually go past that in usage. Your hard limit is the usage you cannot go past - file access will fail if you have this much usage.
You are only allowed to be over your soft limit for 7 days. If you don't get under it within 7 days, your soft limit will become hard and you will not be able to create new files. You will receive email if you are over your soft limit, so take notice of it!
Problems
- Clean Files - I need to get more space, which files can I safely clean up?
- Can't Save Files - problems saving files (check your disk quota)
- File Questions - All sorts of questions about files