Checking Your Disk Quota

DISK QUOTAS

Your research network home directory is limited to a maximum of 10GB by default.

You have probably exceeded your disk quota if you notice any of the following:

SYMPTOMS

  • Linux
    • You can log in but are immediately logged out.
    • You see a strange message about “ICEAuthority” when logging in.
    • Firefox won’t launch.
    • Opening a terminal session results in ‘ENVIRONMENTS/RCG(11):ERROR:102: Tcl command execution failed’
  • Windows
    • When you try to save a file to your network home directory, an error dialog reports “There is not enough space on this drive”.

CHECKING YOUR DISK QUOTA

Run the quota -s command in a terminal.

Sample quota -s output. No asterisk and “Blocks [used]” is less than your current quota, meaning you are under quota:

$ quota -s

Disk quotas for user jsixpack (uid 1001):

     Filesystem  blocks   quota   limit   grace   files   quota   limit   grace
rcg-nfs-04.rcg.sfu.ca:/grad2/
                  1630M   2900M   3072M            1984       0       0

Sample quota -s output when you are over quota. Note the presence of an asterisk:

$ quota -s

Disk quotas for user spacehog (uid 303):

   Filesystem  blocks   quota   limit   grace   files   quota   limit   grace
rcg-nfs-04.rcg.sfu.ca:/grad1/
                3072M*  2900M   3072M   6days   14328       0       0

CLEANING UP YOUR HOME DIRECTORY

  • Linux users:
    • Press Ctrl-Alt-F2 and log in at the prompt. (You can’t log in graphically since that requires free disk space.)
    • Run this command: du --max-depth 1 -x -k ~/ | sort -rn | less
    • When the command finishes, a list of directories and the number of megabytes each one occupies will be displayed
    • Delete files and directories you no longer need.
    • You can also run ls -laSh | less (case-sensitive) to see if there are any unusually large files in the root of your home directory.
    • Press Ctrl-Alt-F7 (or on some systems, Ctrl-Alt-F1) to return to the graphical login screen.
  • Windows users:
    • Use PuTTy to SSH to one of our RCG Linux Terminal Server in SFU Cloud.
    • Run this command: du --max-depth 1 -x -k ~/ | sort -rn | less
    • Using the list of directory sizes provided, delete files and directories you no longer need.
    • You can also run ls -laSh | less (case-sensitive) to see if there are any unusually large files in the root of your home directory.

DELETE YOUR BROWSER CACHE

  • Linux users:
    • Quit Firefox if it’s running.
    • Grab a shell by hitting Ctrl-Alt-F2, SSHing to one of our RCG Linux Terminal Server in SFU Cloud, or opening a new gnome-terminal window.
    • Delete your Firefox cache:
$ cd ~/.cache
$ \rm -r mozilla

USE LAB SPACE: KEEP YOUR HOME DIRECTORY CLEAN

Keep your home directory under quota by using your lab’s (usually very large) shared storage space instead of your home directory.

Not all research storage is backed up. If your lab has purchased backup service, verify your backup and data retention schedule with your lab admin or faculty member.

Print Article