# My /home area is full ("over quota") -- what should I do?

**URL:** <https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/my-home-area-is-full-over-quota-what-should-i-do/1502>\
**Category:** Northern Arizona University\
**Tags:** quota, file-system\
**Created:** [September 15, 2020, 8:26pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/my-home-area-is-full-over-quota-what-should-i-do/1502 "2020-09-15T20:26:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jasonbuechler](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@jasonbuechler](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/u/jasonbuechler)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 8:26pm UTC](https://ask.cyberinfrastructure.org/t/my-home-area-is-full-over-quota-what-should-i-do/1502/1 "2020-09-15T20:26:01Z")

</div>

# How do I see exactly what’s taking all my space?

You can check _disk usage_ using the `du` command.  
**e.g.:** `du -h --max-depth=1 /home/abc123`

Some things to consider:

- use the `--max-depth=N` option to limit results to a maximum of _N_ nested levels. A level of 0 will show only the target/current dir. If you don’t limit the depth, `du` will (kinda slowly) recursively total-up usage for every single file and nested folder.
- use the `-h` flag to list K/M/G suffixes for kilo-/mega-/giga-byte sizes. If you don’t use this “_human-readable_” flag, raw number-of-blocks will be displayed instead.

Here’s an example of output you might see in your **~** dir:

```bash
[abc123@wind ~]$ du -h --max-depth=2 ~
1.6G /home/abc123/.conda/envs
2.3G /home/abc123/.conda/pkgs
3.9G /home/abc123/.conda # roughly equal to (envs + pkgs)
16K /home/abc123/.rstudio/monitored
4.0K /home/abc123/.rstudio/notebooks
4.0K /home/abc123/.rstudio/projects
5.4G /home/abc123/.rstudio/sessions # ~100% of rstudio data is here
288K /home/abc123/.rstudio/sources
20K /home/abc123/.rstudio/pcs
5.4G /home/abc123/.rstudio # roughly the same size as 'sessions'
785M /home/abc123/R/3.6.3
785M /home/abc123/R
9.9G /home/abc123

```

In this case, you could say that most of abc123’s (9.9 GB) /home usage is being filled by the “hidden” configuration/data folders for Anaconda and RStudio.

Further, one could observe that only the **.rstudio/sessions/** directory accounts for ~100% of the usage within its parent **.rstudio/** directory. (See below, if this applies to you.)

# If you can’t see files/directories that start with dots

Use the “-a” flag (i.e. `ls -a`) if you want `ls` to show things starting with a dot.  
(Please see _this\_other_ post about how to interact with hidden files on Linux systems.)

# If you need to reduce your .conda directory

Please see this entry, in Monsoon’s FAQ:

- [Configuring/moving where Anaconda keeps its data](https://in.nau.edu/hpc/faqs/#configuring)

# If you need to reduce your .rstudio directory

Please see these articles from RStudio:

- [Where RStudio Server stores data](https://support.rstudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/218417317-Where-RStudio-Server-stores-data)
- [Filling up the home directory with RStudio Server](https://support.rstudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/218417097-Filling-up-the-home-directory-with-RStudio-Server)
