What to do if you can't save a file?

Owned by Marc Miller
Last updated: Dec 08, 2023 by Marc Miller
2 min read

When you are on your CSIL/Linux account and try to create or save a file, you get an error saying you can't.

Step-by-step guide

In most cases, this is probably due to you hitting your quota.  This often happens due to downloading large files, creating large files, having too many files or because of web browsing just not cleaning up properly.

The best way to resolve this is to do the following:

Use the command top10 in a Terminal window on your account.  This will show something similar to this:

Example of top10 output
[user@csil ~]$ top10
Top 10 space using directories at this location
Size Folder
(Megs)
14 .mozilla
14 .cache
5 Library
4 .local
1 .xsession-errors.old
1 .xsession-errors
1 .Xauthority
1 .Wolfram
1 .viminfo
1 Videos

Total disk usage for this location:
38 .

Your quota:
 Curr / Soft
Space : 38464K / 6144M 
Files : 996 / 100k

Legend:
Curr - Current Usage
Soft - Soft Limit - Exceeding this will prevent creating new files
K == Kilobytes or Thousands
M == Megabytes
* - You have exceeded your quota.

If you see a * next to the first number in Space or Files, you have exceeded your quota.

One quick way to fix this is to use the command clearcache.  This should clear up any of the browser junk that isn't needed.

Do another top10 to see if the quota is lower.  If not, you may need to go into the folders with the largest number and see what you can delete.  You can also use top10 within folders to help narrow down where to look.

for more information please see: Why can't I login graphically? : Going over quota


Note

We recommend that when deleting files, that you use the rm command in Terminal or make sure to empty the trash.  If you do not empty the trash, it will not free up the space.