User Unix Home Directory

Your home directory is where all of your personal files reside on all of the CS Unix machines. This page answers frequently asked questions about your Unix home directory – if you have additions you think should be added to this page, please email support@cs.du.edu.

What is my home directory for?

Your home directory is your personal storage space on the CS Unix machines – any files and directories you create, as well as various configuration files for other programs you may use while logged in, reside in your home directory.

How do I get to my home directory?

Your home directory may be accessed, always-and-forever, via the path:
/u/home/username
where username is your CS Unix user name. You should always use the /u/home/username path in any programs or scripts you write that reference other files in your home directory – do not directly use the location which /u/home/username points to (such as /u/home9/username). This ensures that if we need to move your home directory to another disk partition, your programs and scripts will still work because /u/home/username will always point to the correct place.

I noticed that /u/home/username is actually a symbolic link to somewhere like /u/home9/username – why is this?

The reason we have the /u/home/username layer of abstraction, is because it allows us to move a user’s home directory to another disk if necessary, and still use the same “handle” to their home directory for scripts and programs they have written. One reason why we might need to move a user’s home directory to another disk might be that they are working on a research project which requires them to be using more disk space than is available on the disk currently housing their home directory.

How much stuff can I save in my home directory?

Please, try keeping your data size on the disk under 25GB.

What if I want to quickly see how much space my home directory is using?

You could use the “du -sh .” command as follows:
cd; du -sh .
This changes to your home directory, then calculates how much space the directory is using.