Managing Disk Space with Disk Partitions

Managing Disk Space with Disk Partitions

An extreme method of enforcing disk use quotas is to create a disk partition and file system for each user account and to mount the file system on an empty directory as the user's home directory. Then, when users run out of disk space, they will not be able to create or enlarge any files. They will, however, still be able to write their files to /tmp, /usr/tmp.O, and /var/tmp, unless those directories are also full. When users attempt to write or create a file that takes them over their limit, they receive an error message indicating that no disk space is left on the device.

This method of disk control is not generally recommended. It requires a great deal of preparation and maintenance on the part of the Administrator, and is not easily modified once in place. Additionally, fragmenting your disk into many small partitions reduces the total amount of available disk space and produces a performance overhead on your system. In this case, the disk controller must write a user's files within only one small partition, instead of in the next convenient place on the disk.

You should consider this method of disk space control only if your system is so overloaded and your users so obstinate that all other measures have failed. If your /usr partition is chronically 100% full, the system is halting operations daily due to lack of disk space, and there is no way to increase your disk space, then you may want to consider this method.