disk storage

Since August 2007, all project filesystems have been stored on filesystems capable of, among other things, point-in-time snapshots. Since these snapshots impact how you use the filesystem, this page is meant to give some explanation of the implications that come along with them.

Note that ALL project filesystems have snapshots enabled by default. If you feel like snapshots on your project filesystem are causing a problem for you, please email csstaff@cs.princeton.edu explaining your problem so that we can discuss options to mitigate it.

If a file is lost from your account (e.g., if you accidentally removed a file you need), the file can usually be restored, since filesystem snapshots are done on a regular basis for most user-accessible filesystems unless requested otherwise. If you lose a file from your home directory or project space, it can usually be recovered by looking in the snapshot tree. If, however, your file was lost from a filesystem on which snapshots have been disabled, or if it is not in the snapshot tree for some reason, it is likely not possible to recover.

Home directories are given automatically to everyone who has a CS account. The amount of disk space depends on your default group. If you need additional storage, see Requesting Storage Space.

How do I determine my disk quota/usage?

Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that provides seamless file services to SMB/CIFS clients. Samba runs on most Unix and Unix-like systems, such as GNU/Linux, Solaris, and the BSD variants, including Apple's Mac OS X. It is standard on virtually all distributions of Linux and is commonly included as a basic system service on other Unix-based systems as well.

The CS department uses CIFS shares to share files to personal desktop machines and laptops for access to home directories, web space, and project space.

Network File System (NFS) is a protocol originally developed by Sun Microsystems in 1984 and defined in RFCs 1094, 1813, and 3530 (obsoletes 3010), as a distributed file system which allows a computer to access files over a network as easily as if they were on its local disks. The CS department uses NFS to share files to the public machines and servers for user home directories, web space, and project space.

Home Directories

Home directories are automatically given to everyone with a CS account. This space is backed up on a daily basis (for more information on backups and snapshots, please see this link). The amount of space depends on your default group.

Project Space

This space is intended for most storage needs that exceed the size of a home directory quota, including: