The ACS cluster supports thousands of user accounts. Because disk storage resources are limited, you have a disk quota which controls how much can be stored on your account. Your disk quota is assigned according to academic status:
Faculty 10 Mbytes Graduate students 5 Mbytes Undergraduate students 4 Mbytes Student consultants 4 Mbytes BU Staff 3 Mbytes Guests 1 Mbyte
You can determine the amount of disk space you are currently using with the disk usage command:
du -sk ~
The "s" switch specifies to report only the sum for all your files rather than information for each file; the "k" switch specifies to express that number in 1024-byte blocks (Kbytes); and the "~" at the end specifies to report information on all files in your home directory and all the subdirectories below it.
As an example:
% du -sk ~
1442 /u3/ugrad/fred
Fred's files are using 1442 Kbytes of disk space. Divide the number of Kbytes by 1000 to determine Mbytes. 1442 Kbytes is equal to 1.4 Mbytes, which is well under the 4 Mbyte quota for undergraduate students.
If you are find that you are approaching your disk quota, you can run the program "disk_clean" to help you find files which are likely candidates for deletion. The disk_clean program does not delete files, it simply looks through your directories for files which are usually considered temporary or old. Examples include core files (large pictures of memory which you will never need unless you plan to debug programs), editor backup files (e.g., Emacs saves the old version of any file edited under the name "filename~"), old versions of files used by news readers and mail, and intermediate files created by programs such as TeX and LaTeX. If you need help, please talk to someone at one of the Consulting Services Help Desks.
If you find it impossible to store your work within your disk quota, you will need to fill out a form requesting additional disk space and return it to the front office at Information Technology, 111 Cummington Street, first floor. Students must obtain the approval and signature of their faculty advisor or the course professor on this form.
For more information, see the "du" and "quota" man pages.