How do I check RCE disk quota?

What is Quota?

Your "quota" is a limit on your data storage space.

Types of Quotas

  • User Quotas: Each RCE user has a separate home directory quota of 2GB. Please note that when you move files to your Trash, they still count against your home directory disk quota until you empty your Trash, regardless of where they were moved from.
  • Group Quotas: Each research project in the RCE is designated a "group" and each group is given a "project space" with a separate quota. You may also have a personal group with only yourself as a member and a project space for your personal social science research projects. This is where we recommend you store large files, secure confidential data, and build custom software.

Checking Quota

To check your quota, first open a terminal window on an RCE server...

  • From within the RCE desktop, select ApplicationsAccessoriesTerminal.
  • If you cannot log in to the RCE (i.e. you're over quota), you must log in via SSH: see Secure Shell under Accessing the RCE for instructions.

Then type: quotareport

Additionally, you can use "list" and "disk usage" to track file size:

  • ls -lah (format as a list, show hidden files including .Trash, make file sizes human readable)
  • du -hs /path/to/directory/ (make sizes human readable, summary)
  • du -ach --max-depth=1 /path/to/directory/ (list size of files, show a grand total, make sizes human readable; get folder size, but don't include sub-folders)
  • du -sh ./* | grep '[0-9]M' | sort -nr | head (find all file sizes, show only the largest ones that are at least a megabyte, sort descending, show only the top 10)

Making Space

Use the File Browser in the RCE to find and delete unneeded files, or use the terminal commands below...

  • Deleting files: rm file_name
  • Deleting entire directories: rm -rf directory_name
  • Empty the trash when done: rm -rf ~/.local/share/Trash/*