CS Student Account Policies

This page discusses account information about your CS Linux account, if you require more information about your main University of Regina account you can find that information at https://www.uregina.ca/is/accounts-logins-passwords.html.

CS Linux Account policies are subject to change at any time.

NOTE: Linux user accounts are case sensitive. By default your user account will be all lower case characters, even if your username is displayed with upper case characters anywhere.

Your Linux account provides access to the Computer Science Department's Linux systems. These systems are used throughout the Computer Science courses for research and teaching purposes. Specifically you will be able to access Titan (titan.cs.uregina.ca) via SSH as well as use any of the Linux desktops in Classroom Building Room 115.

Linux Account Lifetime (creation, removal, and extension)

Your account is created when you register for a CS course and/or are majoring in a CS discipline. By default all student accounts start out as disabled. You have to access the CS Services Account page (https://services.cs.uregina.ca/access/account.php) and enable your account to be able to start using it.

On the CS Services Account page there is an "Account Expiry" field, this will indicate when your account will be deleted. All associated data for your account will be removed on this date as well. Please save any directories/files from your account before this date.

Your account expiry will be extended each semester you register for a CS course or are contiuning majoring in a CS discipline. Once you stop registering for CS courses or change majors away from CS, your account will eventually expire. You will be notified via your uregina.ca email a few times before your account is about to expire.

Typically your account lifetime is 1 year plus 1 semester after the end of the semester you were in a CS course or are pursuing a major in a CS discipline. For example, if your account was created Winter Semester 2024 your accout will expire approximately middle September 2025. This is assuming you did not register for any CS courses and are not continuing along as a CS Major. If the account expiry occurs, the next time you register for a CS course you will have an account created for you minus all your previous work.  Save any of your data (files, code, directories etc.) to your own system/devices before your account expires.

You can also lose your account by abusing your account in such a way that it does or could interfere:

  • with those using the machine for classwork
  • with the proper functioning of the machine under any circumstances

 

Disk Usage

Your Linux account has disk quotas in place to limit the amount of space associated to everyone. The quota is currently set at 3 GB.  You can check your own disk quota and usage by entering the command: quota -s once you login to any CS Linux system terminal.

All accounts are checked daily to ensure that they have not exceeded their quota. If any account is found to be over quota you will be notified via email. You will have 7 days to clean up the disk usage in your account.

You can run the command: du -ch --max-depth=1 at any CS Linux system terminal in your home directory to view which directories are using the most space. Repeat the command as required in other directories to narrow down your search if needed.

Some typical directories you can look in and safely remove files (using the rm command):

  • On desktop (CL 115) empty your Trash Directory.
  • Check your Downloads folder and remove files in there
  •  remove any files beginning with "core-", typically in your home folder could be in others as well.
  • .vscode-server/extensions directory can be emptied (used when connecting remotely with VS Code). These extensions will be reconfigured when you connect remotely to a system through VS Code.
  • .vscode/extensions directory can be emptied (used when using one of the desktops in CL 115 VS Code). If you delete extensions in here, you will have to install the extensions again if you are using one of the desktops in CL 115.
  • .cache/ you can remove all files/directories in here
  • If you use the CPP extension in VS Code, you may have to set the "C_Cpp Intelli Sense Cache Size". By default this is set to 5000. Which is 5 GB and more than your quota. Please set this value to 512. You can find the setting by going to File -> Preferences -> Settings in VS Code.  Then you can search for the IntelliSenseCacheSize  setting and ensure it is set to 512.

You can also use the tar command with -z flag or zip command to group files and compress them to a single file archive. Then transfer the archive to your own device and remove the archive locally. However, you will need to have some space in your account to be able to support the size of the archive file.

If your account is left in an over quota state you may not be able to continue your course work or even login to a CS Linux system.