FAQ - Using UNIX: Disk Quotas, Lost Files, and Others

For an introduction to UNIX, both in general and in how it's used at the ACCC, see UNIX 101: Basic UNIX.

Question 1.1 Over Disk Quota
When I log on to my icarus/tigger account, it tells me I am over my home directory disk quota. (Or you might receive a message saying that you're at or exceeding your home directory disk space.) What does this mean?

• Home directory disk space is the space you have on your icarus or tigger account for your personal Web files, your programs and data, your IMAP email directories that you keep on the server other than your email Inbox (if you use pine or WebMail or a personal email program with IMAP, then you probably have mailboxes in addition to your Inbox on the server), and all the other files you have in your home directory and its subdirectories on your account.
• To check if you are running out of home directory disk space,
  log into icarus and enter: quota -v
  or log into tigger and enter: quota
  If the number under blocks is larger than the number under quota then you will need to delete some files.
  • To see which files are taking up all the space you could start by entering:
    du
    This will tell how much space is going to each directory.
  • To see how large files are, enter: ls -al
  • To remove a file enter: rm file_name
  • To remove an entire directory and all its subdirectories enter:
    rm -r directory_name
    
    
• For more suggestions on how to clear up disk space, see our space policy document.
• You can also get information on your home directory disk space quota, especially your use of it to store email, using the Mailtools Quota, Download, and Delete tool. For directions on how to use it, see Using the ACCC Email Diagnotics Tool.
1. Go to the ACCC home page (or any other ACCC Web page) and click the purple Email button.
2. Click the Email-Quota Tool Link
3. After you enter your ACCC netid and password and select server if necessary, the ACCC Email Quota, Download, and Delete Tool will display your email and disk quotas and offer links to pages that list your largest email messages and, for icarus and tigger, that allow you to download or delete your largest files.

Question 1.2 I received an email message saying I've got too much email on my account. What does this mean and how do I fix it?

• This question is answered in the General Email FAQ, see I received a message warning me about email quotas; what do I do?

Question 1.3 Extra Disk Space
I've gone over my disk space quota and I need to get more space.

There is a limited amount of disk space available, and we all must share it. For that reason, the ACCC has limits on the online disk space each account may use for email, and, on icarus and tigger, an additional limit the online disk space used for all your other files (programs and data, your personal Web pages, and online mailboxes other than your Inbox).

• The current ACCC home directory space limits are in ACCC Online Disk Space Policy, along with suggestions on how to clear up space problems.
• The current ACCC email space limits are in Email Space Limits for ACCC Servers; Using the ACCC Email Diagnostics Tools has links to pages that explain how to fix email quota problems.

Question 2.1 I accidentally deleted files off of my UNIX account. Is it possible to restore them?

• If the files existed on your icarus or tigger account overnight, yes, using the ACCC's automatic backup of files on ACCC UNIX workstations.
• See ADSM backup clients for UNIX: dsmc, dsm and the DSMC FAQ.
• If what you've deleted is an email message, see below.

Question 2.2 I deleted an email message that I shouldn't have. Is there any way to get it back?

• If the message in question was in your ACCC UNIX inbox or another IMAP email folder -- an email folder that's stored on the ACCC email server rather than on your personal computer -- and has been there at least overnight, it might be in the backup copy of of that email mailbox on the server.
• See I deleted an email message that I shouldn't have. Is there any way to get it back? in the DSMC FAQ.
• It is very important to get your message back as soon as possible. We only keep a limited number of backup copies of files; the backups of the mailbox that your deleted message was in will expire quickly.

Question 3.1 My arrow and backspace keys don't work correctly.

• To make the backspace key available, at the UNIX prompt enter:
  set -o emacs
  You can then backspace with the backspace key. However, this will only affect the session that you are currently in. To make these settings permanent you need to put the line "set - o emacs" at the end of your .profile, which executes every time you login. To do this enter:
  echo "set -o emacs" >> .profile
  
• If you have a Tigger account, you can use Ctrl-b to go backward and Ctrl-f to go forward on the command line, instead of using arrow keys.

Question 3.2 My UNIX account crashed and I didn't get to log off.

• Machines may crash for a number of reasons. Sometimes you may run too many applications for the machine to handle. Other times, it may crash due to circumstances beyond your control.
• You should be automatically logged out if you get disconnected for any reason. However, this might take a couple of days if it happens at all. To make sure that your session is disconnected enter this at the UNIX command prompt the next time you login:
  kill -9 -1
  This will also kill your current session, so you will have to login again.

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