Other Sources of Disk Space
Other than home space, there are several other sources of disk space available at CISE which may be appropriate to use under certain circumstances. Be sure to read the policy for each.
/tmp
Every machine has a directory /tmp . Any file stored here should be small and temporary. Placing files in /tmp can seriously degrade the performance of a machine or even cause it to crash. As such, any file placed here may be deleted by the sysadmins at any time and with no notice.
/var/tmp
A /var/tmp directory is available on every machine as well. It is not shared between machines (i.e. you cannot see files in /var/tmp from machine A on machine B). /var/tmp is designed to be used by running processes that need somewhere they can reliably store transient files. /var/tmp may be used by programs and scripts for this purpose, but care must be taken to store only small files here. If /var/tmp fills up, it can be impossible to compile programs, edit files, print, or run other programs which rely on being able to store temporary files there. /var/tmp should never be used for long term storage. Be sure to use the 'df' command to see if there is space there for your files.
/var/tmp should be regarded as very short term space. Files more than 14
days old, or large files that are filling up the disk are subject to deletion
without notification. Newer files may also be deleted if they are responsible
for filling up /var/tmp.
/cise/tmp
The /cise/tmp directory is mounted on every machine. It is available for storing temporary large files and directory trees. Like /var/tmp , it must be regarded as short term (though for larger files). Files more than 14 days old are subject to deletion without notification. Users who constantly use /cise/tmp to store files that they don't have room for in their home directory may lose the priviledge of using it at all.
/cise/tmp is never backed up, so important files should never be stored there.
Before storing files in /cise/tmp , be sure to use the 'df' command to check the amount of disk space free. /cise/tmp is used by some of the programs at CISE and if it fills up, they no longer work on any machine.
Research Space
Faculty members may purchase disks for use on the CISE computers. Usage on these disks is determined entirely by that professor. Members of their research group may be given access to that disk at the professor's discretion.
This should be the primary recourse for professors who need additional disk space. Research space should also be made available by the professor to members of their research group who have been assigned tasks that will require large amounts of disk space.
For more details, refer to the Research Disk Space Page.
