How to understand the output of quota?

Question

On a Scientific Linux server (actually a node of a cluster), I run

$ quota -vs
Disk quotas for user tim (uid 12345): 
     Filesystem  blocks   quota   limit   grace   files   quota   limit   grace
       /dev/vdb      12    126G    126G               3   8389k   8389k

According to https://www.isg.inf.ethz.ch/HelpHowToCheckQuotaLinux, blocks is used disk space in kilobytes, but I found that my home has used much more than 12 kilobyes:
```
$ du -sh ~
4.1G    /afs/user/tim
```
The webpage also says file is the number of files, but I have much more than 3 files in either my home or the current directory.

So how shall I understand the meaning of the output of quota?

Output of mount:

$ mount

/dev/vda1 on / type ext4 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,rootcontext="system_u:object_r:tmpfs_t:s0")
/dev/vda2 on /var type ext4 (rw)
/dev/vda5 on /var/lib/cvmfs type ext4 (rw,noatime,nodiratime)
/dev/vdb on /tmp type ext3 (rw,_netdev,usrquota)
sssd on /var/lib/sss/db type tmpfs (rw,size=300M,mode=0700,rootcontext="system_u:object_r:sssd_var_lib_t:s0")
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
AFS on /afs type afs (rw)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/user/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/work/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/work/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/work/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/user/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
cvmfs2 on /cvmfs/xxx.xxx.xxx type fuse (ro,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/work/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/user/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/work/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
cvmfs2 on /cvmfs/xxx.xxx.xxx type fuse (ro,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/work/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/user/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/user/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/user/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/user/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/user/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/work/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/user/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/work/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:/xxx/xxx/xxx on /afs/user/xxx type fuse.sshfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx@xxx.xxx.xxx:/Volumes/RAID/Data/xxx on /afs/user/xxx/xxx type fuse.sshfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/user/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
xxx.xxx.xxx on /afs/user/xxx type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=xxx)
cvmfs2 on /cvmfs/xxx.xxx.xxx type fuse (ro,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions)
cvmfs2 on /cvmfs/xxx.xxx.xxx type fuse (ro,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions)
cvmfs2 on /cvmfs/xxx.xxx.xxx type fuse (ro,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions)
cvmfs2 on /cvmfs/xxx.xxx.xxx type fuse (ro,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions)

Output of fs lq

$ fs lq /afs/user/tim
Volume Name                    Quota       Used %Used   Partition
user.tim                   10485760    4266340   41%          0%

I am not sure if it has some private or sensitive information. Can you help to remove any such information after I post it? — Tim, Jan 07 '16 at 04:08
I can certainly look at it. But it would be unusual for that to be sensitive... — Michael Hampton, Jan 07 '16 at 04:10
posted.......... the output of `mount` changes every time I runs it, and I don't know why. — Tim, Jan 07 '16 at 04:30
Most likely because different users are logging in and out of the cluster, and their home directories get mounted and unmounted when they do so. — Michael Hampton, Jan 07 '16 at 04:36

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 07 '16 at 04:32

1

The listed quota applies to the /dev/vdb device, which you can see is mounted on /tmp. So, you can only create 8 million files or use 126GB of space under /tmp.

To see your AFS quota, for your network filesystem, you need to run fs lq <directory>.

For example: fs lq /afs/user/tim

answered Jan 07 '16 at 04:32

Michael Hampton

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Thanks. What are the differences between the purposes of the quota applying to `/dev/vdb` and of the AFS quota? – Tim Jan 07 '16 at 04:34
@Tim `/tmp` is a filesystem local to that cluster node, while `/afs/user/tim` is an [AFS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_File_System) network filesystem which is handled in a completely different manner, and is presumably accessible to all nodes in the cluster. – Michael Hampton Jan 07 '16 at 04:35
is `/tmp` not a permanant storage for my data? Is `/afs/user/tim`? – Tim Jan 07 '16 at 04:38
Is it possible to make the output of `fs lq` human readable i.e in MB or GB? I posted its output. – Tim Jan 07 '16 at 04:39
is the quota that applies to the /dev/vdb device just for me or for all the users of the node? – Tim Jan 07 '16 at 04:45
@Tim `/tmp` is _temporary_ and its contents are usually deleted when the cluster node is rebooted. (Check with your cluster administrator.) Use this for large intermediate datasets your program generates, but not for the final output. – Michael Hampton Jan 07 '16 at 04:45
@Tim And you're asking many questions now, most of which ought to be directed to the cluster administrator. – Michael Hampton Jan 07 '16 at 04:46

How to understand the output of quota?

1 Answers1