Storage and file management: Difference between revisions

Unlike your personal computer, a Compute Canada system will typically have several storage spaces or filesystems and you should ensure that you are using the right space for the right task. In this section we will discuss the principal filesystems available on most Compute Canada systems and the intended use of each one along with some of its characteristics. While your home directory may seem like the logical place to store all your files and do all your work, in general this isn't the case - your home normally has a relatively small quota and doesn't have especially good performance for the writing and reading of large amounts of data. The most logical use of your home directory is typically source code, small parameter files and job submission scripts. The project space has a significantly larger quota and is well-adapted to [[Sharing data | sharing data]] among members of a research group since it, unlike the home or scratch, is linked to a professor's account rather than an individual user. However, for any intensive read/write operations scratch is the best choice, with important files moved elsewhere since the data in scratch aren't backed up and older files are subject to [[Scratch purging policy|purging]].