Definitions of Terms Used in Quota Change Form

Computing Project:

Class and research projects that use the university UNIX computers have an associated computer project with a unique project number. When you log in to UNIX, you are under your default project number. You can see what this number is by typing "chdgrp" which will list all projects that you may use including your default project number.

Disk Quota or Quota:

This is the amount of information (data, programs, etc.) typically measured in mb (megabyte) units, that you can store under your user number. This number is also referred to as a "soft limit". You may go over your quota for a short time. If you exceed your quota, you will receive a warning message the next time you log on telling you the number of days you have left to reduce your storage usage. Executing "quota -v" tells you your usage, quota and the number of days you have left to reduce your usage if you go over quota. If you do not reduce your "usage" to a value less than the "quota" in the specified number of days, you will see "EXPIRED" in the "timeleft" column and you will not be able to create or save files. There is also a "hard limit" which you cannot exceed. Both the quota and the hard limit as well as your current usage and number of files is reported by the "quota -v" command. Note that this command reports your quota in kb (kilobyte) units. Thus, if your quota is reported to be 5000, this is 5000 kb or 5 mb.

Home Directory:

In the UNIX system, all your files are organized into groups called directories. Your starting place when you log in to UNIX is called your home directory.

Project 4000:

Project 4000 is referred to as the "e-mail project". All students, staff and faculty have accounts under this project. Project 4000 users can log in to Copland and run Netscape without having their account charged. Because this project is not intended for research computing, but only e-mail and/or surfing the net, users cannot generally increase their disk quota under this project. Therefore, users who request an increase in their disk quota must have at least one other project in addition to their project 4000.

Project Director:

The person charged with administering a group of people's use of the central computing systems. If you are a student in a course with a course computing project, your project director (for that portion of your computing) is usually your instructor. If you are a member of a continuing project (e.g., a departmental research project or a project set up for majors in a specific department), the project director is often one of the following:

1. your supervisor
2. a graduate or undergraduate advisor
3. the chair or director of your department
4. someone in the chair or director's office.

Username:

A username is a 2-8 letter word that you can use instead of your user number when you log in. To obtain a username, log in to one of the UNIX computers and type "username" at the prompt. You will then be given the instructions to acquire a username. Once you choose a username, you cannot change it.

User Number:

The user number is a unique five-digit number which identifies you to the computer.

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