Hello all,
For a user user1 and a filesystem /partition, quota is set. What happens if user1 has already exceeded the hard limit set for him?
Is there any way to cut down the storage space already allocated to user1 to the specified hard limit? Or the administrator has to do it manually?

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking, or if you're asking quite the right question.

When you ask "Is there any way to cut down the storage space already allocated to user1 to the specified hard limit?" do you mean is there a way for user1 to do that?

If user1 is over the hard limit they can't create any files or append to any existing files but they should still be able to log in and then delete files to get back under the hard limit. Even if they can't log in to an X session they should at least be able to log in to a command prompt.

Let's just say that you never want to ask a computer to destroy things arbitrarily. Or this will happen ...

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Thanks for the reply,Arizona !
Say user1 has already used 5GB space and then quota is set on the filesystem with hard limit 4GB per user.In this case,do we have any configuration parametr in quota utility to reduce the space from 5GB to 4GB by automatically deleting some of his files/folders? Or can we set some grace period before deleting the files so?

I hope I'm communicating my question.

,,... Well said! But my intentions are not so harsh!

That was actually my best guess as to what you meant but I thought you couldn't mean that because... well how would that work exactly? How you you, or any utility, decide which of user1's files it was OK to delete? I'm assuming of course that you want to avoid making user1 hate you because you chose some of their files to delete at random.



As for a grace period, well as I said user1 won't be able to create or modify any files until they get back under their hard limit. So assuming user1 actually wants to keep using whatever system this quota is on, they'll have no choice but to delete some of their files themselves.

Pragmatically, since the reason for the machine (and therefore, for your job) is to enable users to get work done ... you need to use your powers of politics and persuasion here, first. First, educate the user as to the reason why quotas exist. Next, ask them to reduce their disk space usage, and offer them practical assistance in doing so. (They're probably not programmers, and if you give them an ultimatum, you've also put their project and their personnel-budget in jeopardy.) Perhaps they can argue successfully that they need their quota to be larger. Prepare your point-of-view for easy decision making by a senior manager at the appropriate level of your company's food chain. (Maybe what the company should be doing instead is buying more disk drives. C'est la vie.)

Fair Warning: Take no action that could be interpreted as "adverse to" the business objectives of any user or customer. It does not matter in the slightest what your system-administration capabilities are, because you should not confuse these with your (much more limited...) prerogatives. Document the situation very carefully and approach your management now for guidance and instructions. You are treading on (familiar...) egg shells. This is why those people get paid the bigger bucks.

1 members found this post helpful.

What can I say?...Thank you very much for the reply.

I got it now.Thank you very much!