General Account Questions

What is the default quota limit?
One hundred (100) megabytes is the default quota.

What is my quota/how much disk space am I using?
You can use the 'quota -v' command to report your disk utilization and your quota allocation.

I'm over my quota -- what can I do?
You can use the findhog script to find the biggest files in your account. Simply run findhog to find the top 20 files, or 'findhog x' to locate the largest x files.

There is also a script called rm-junk that goes through your home directory and looks for caches and core files and asks you if you want to remove them. Just type "y" at the prompt and it will delete them for you.

Core files generated when a program crashes are likely to be of little value to you. These can be deleted without a second thought in most cases. If you've got a bunch and you know they're all from the same program, first tell us (problems@cs.rit.edu), and then remove the core file. Check if you have a '~/.mozilla' directory and a '~/.netscape' directory. If you have both, follow these directions:

1. Move into your '~/.mozilla' directory, and get a listing of the contents.
2. If there are several files of the form {username}-xxx where 'xxx' is an incrementing number, you'll need to remove everything in your '~/.mozilla and '~/.netscape' directories. This is done by:
   

   1. Exit from Mozilla and Netscape
   2. cd ~ {enter}
   3. rm -rf ~/.mozilla {enter}
   4. rm -rf ~/.netscape {enter}

3. Check your quota again. At this point, you're likely way under quota.
4. Next time you start mozilla or netscape, these files will be rebuilt.

Compiled code is also a space consumer. So long as you have the source code, binary files may be deleted. Code from past classes should be compressed to reduce disk utilization.

If you need more space due to course-related work, ask your professor to request more space on your behalf by sending mail to problems@cs.rit.edu with your username and an estimate of how much space you'll need and how long you'll need it for. By default, an increase in quota is not permanent, and you're default quota will be restored at the end of the quarter.

I used to be able to log in at the console of any lab machine. Now, the screen flashes white and returns me to to login screen. What's up?
It's likely your over quota. At the Solaris login screen, select 'Command Line Login' from the 'Options' menu. Alternatively, connect via SSH.

Check the above comments about quota, and if the problem persists or this does not clear it up, stop by the System Administrators office.

I've changed my dot files and now have trouble with my account -- what can I do?
Unless you know what changes have been made and can undo them easily, the best and quickest way back to a functional CS account is to restore these files from the defaults. This is done by running the script '/usr/local/pub/scripts/fixdotfiles' (Note: You'll likely need to use the full path if you've messed with these files too much).

A note about editing your dot files:

There are a million ways to modify these files to customize them more to your liking. This also means there are a million ways to destroy them. We cannot and will not debug your script files to fix them. As the changing shell FAQ states:

Changes to these files is done at your own risk. If you come to us for help with these files, it is very likely we will forcibly restore them to their default values.

Some scripts that could easily be referenced in these files should not be. Scripts that are interactive (the Oracle configuration script, for example) will prevent console login to all CS lab machines.

What is my default shell? Can I change this?
Currently the default shell is csh. At this time the CS Facilities committee recommends that the default shell is not changed. However there is a work-around to changing your shell available here. Use at your own risk!