Linux home directories in the MPI CBS

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Overview
FAQ

Overview

The home directory is a small folder containing configuration information of and small-volume data of programs run by you, for example

which windows is placed where in your graphical session or
which web sites you visited in your browser.

It should not contain

research data,
large paper collections and
personal pictures, music, etc.

FAQ

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Why is my home directory so small? How to increase its capacity?

The reasons for its small size are explained here .

If you run into the storage limits of your home directory, IT will upon request increase its size temporarily . However, there'll be no permanent increase of its size for reasons explained in the first link.

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How can I find large storage spaced used in my home directory?

Use the institute's `homedirusage` command

Open a terminal
and enter homedirusage -l

Estimate the file space usage

Open the terminal emulator.
du -cs .??* * | sort -n
This command shows you the directories and their sizes. The large ones will be shown beneath.
Or human-readable: du -csh .??* * | sort -h

Disk space usage

Open the terminal emulator.
df -h

Show managed storage you have access to

Open the terminal emulator.
mydata

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What does the `.thunderbird` folder contain?

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This folder contains configuration information of the officially supported mail client software Thunderbird. If it is too big, it's usually caused by Thunderbird keeping a copy of all messages in your home directory. Since the mail server is very fast, directly attached to the institute network and your home folder's size is limited, you might want to disabled that. Necessary steps:

Right click on you mail account in the left area in Thunderbird.
Select Settings.
Select Synchronization & Storage (a sub item below your account on the left side of the settings dialog).
Uncheck "Keep messages in all folders".