Are we ever going to have enough disk space so we can use FTP or 
maybe we can get all our mail?

18 responses total.

(there is a new disk on its way in, if it isn't already. It will be
on-line as soon as it's ready. with all of the newusers and the FTPers and
"send me mail here!"rs, don't expect it to last long.)

What size do you think it will be?

(the last I heard, it would be a 1.8M disk. I also heard that it wasn't
expected to last six months before MORE space would be needed to
accomodate all of the newusers/diskusers/FTPers/Newsreaders/Mailers/con-
ferencers/all-purposers.)

(there's also been talk of disk quotas. I missed the discussion. Hopefully
someone else can fill us both in.) 

The disk has been ordered, and should be here next week.  It's a 
2.1GB Micropolis unit.

The current tentative plan for disk quotas is 1MB/user, with more
space available upon request.

Yea!!!! Finally a lot more disk space... YES!!! But 1MB/user is a bit
too small... I feel that 2 or 3 MB is more reasonable but of course
I don't know how many users access Grex. I heard of other places
offering more disk space but more donation is needed...

Hey, dang it, we haven't even got the darn thing yet.  Let's try it
out first before we start tossing higher quotas around.  There tends
to be too much guessing going on around here...let's just try it
and find out!

I think the plan was to have 1M per user to prevent programs that would
accidentally eat lots of disk, but to give more disk space to anybody who
specifically requested it.  Still, *don't* take the 1M quota as parmission
to always store up to a meg of stuff on it.  If every Grex user did that,
or even very many, all that new disk space would vanish instantly and we
would be right back where we started.  Remember, Grex is not a commercial
provider which is obligated to provide whatever you want or risk losing
your business.  Grex is a non profit that is upgrading as fast as it can
afford to, but has by no means unlmited resources.  The bottom line is to
think before you do stuff on Grex and to keep the limitations in mind.  In
other words, don't hog more disk space than you need to.

What Steve said.  Grex has about 600 active users; if each of them
had 3MB of files on-line, we'd need 1.8GB just for their files.
Remember, that's just *active* users -- people who call in every day
or two.  There are over 5000 accounts in /etc/passwd; think of how
much disk space would be needed to let each of *them* store 3MB
of files!

Once quotas are implemented, if you need to handle larger files
you can use /tmp, which won't have any quotas.  Of course, files
older than 3 days are automatically reaped from /tmp, so you shouldn't
use it for long-term storage.  And, if you need more space, it will
be very easy to get it -- just e-mail staff and ask.  Unless we're
in a disk crunch, you'll be able to get more quota just by asking.

How reliable is that /tmp reaping?

What do you mean by, "how reliable"?  How reliably does it actually
delete files older than 3 days, or how reliably does it fail
to delete files younger than 3 days?

Welp, that'll be ok I guess... using the /tmp dir... I hope we get 
it soon enough....

Well, we seem to be worried about the reliability of an account
reaper (in terms of deleting only the accounts it's supposed to delete,
neither earlier nor later...).  Sounds like the /tmp reaper is similar
in terms of its time dependence.  Does it have problems dealing with
time like some people feel an account reaper will have problems?

(I'm failing miserably to see the objection to the automatic reaper, but
that's another issue... methinks I`'ll go buzz by coop.)

Good idea. I too am puzzled by it, and coop is a good place to buzz.

I figure if the /tmp reaper works, the account reaper probably will,
too.  Unless the /tmp reaper is seriously flawed...  In other words,
we already use this sort of program daily on Grex with no ill effects.

This response has been erased.

This response has been erased.

But both programs would be based on the same clock/time-keeping system,
I assume. 

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