What is a disk quota?
Disk Quotas are a means of limiting the amount of actual disk space used by a user or a group. On multi-user systems, such as the CUE systems at JLAB, common disk space is shared among all users from some central system. Without disk quotas one user or group would have the capability to utilize all physical disk space that is shared by everyone who has access to it.
The disk quota is a protocol that is often used by system administrators to ensure that available resources are equitably and reasonably distributed among the users of the operating systems that are used by a home or business network. This process of managing the file system usage of each work station within the network helps to prevent the use of more resources by one user to the detriment of another user in the group. The system administrator normally has the ability to assign disk quotas on both a per work station basis as well as on an individual user basis. There are essentially two recognized types of disk quota implementation in use today. The first is known as a block or usage quota. With this approach, the system administrator will set limits on the amount of disk space that can be used by any one system user. By setting a usage quota, the administrator can make sure that all users of the network have reasonable access to resources needed to perform essential tasks, but do not
A disk quota is the amount of space allotted to each user for file storage on a given computer. On shared systems such as Unix, every user has a maximum disk quota. This prevents any individual from using more than his or her fair share of disk space. In order to keep from going over your quota, you must be sure to periodically clean out old, unused, and unneeded files. Two commands are very helpful in bringing your disk space back under control: • The ls -al command shows you the contents of your directory. • The rm command removes any unnecessary files. To use the rm command (which stands for “remove”), enter: rm filename Replace filename with the name of the file you want to remove. You can also enter: rm -i filename The -i flag tells Unix to inquire for confirmation before removing. Always be careful when you remove files because there is no command to retrieve the file. You may create an alias that will move files to a trash can rather than removing them from the system completely
