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Personal System Administration Guide

Chapter 6
Managing Disk Space

Your system comes standard with a system disk that contains the IRIX operating system and hundreds of megabytes (MB) of unused disk space. As you add new user login accounts, the User Manager creates new directories on this disk for each person in which they can store more files and directories. As you add new application software, the Software Manager creates the appropriate files and directories to support it. Over time, you may begin to run out of disk space.

This chapter shows you how to monitor your available disk space and efficiently use disk space on your own system and on other systems on the network. It also shows you how to format and use floppy and floptical disks. Click a topic for more information.

Overview of the Disk Manager

The Disk Manager shows all disk drives, including CD-ROM, floppy, floptical, and SyQuest drives, that are physically connected to your system; it does not show tape drives. The button beneath the photo of the drive shows the drive type, drive controller number and drive address number. It also shows the total size of your disk (in MB or GB), how much space is available on the disk (in MB or GB), the type of data that's found on the disk, and the desktop icon that lets you access the data on the disk.

The system automatically updates the value in the Free Space column every 10 minutes. To request an immediate update, click the Update Space button.

To access the data on a disk, double-click the icon in the Access column. If the icon is not already on your desktop, you can drag it onto the desktop for easy access.

To view more detailed information about a disk or to change its setup information, click the button beneath the disk.

For information on using the Disk Manager to work with disks, click a topic:

For information on using other tools to work with disks, click a topic:

Monitoring Disk Space and Setting a Warning Level

The Disk Manager shows the total size of your disk (in MB or GB) and shows the amount of space that's still available for use. When you first start the Disk Manager, it checks the disk space and gives you up-to-the-second information. If you keep the Disk Manager window open, the system updates these numbers every ten minutes. To request an immediate update, click the Update Space button.

If the Disk Manager is not running, start it by choosing "Disk Manager" from the System toolchest or by clicking the words Disk Manager now.

If you have a disk that has more than one partition (you can access it from more than one directory), you can check the amount of space available on each partition by clicking the button beneath the photo of the disk.

By default, the System Monitor warns you when your disk is 99% full. A Privileged User can change this threshold by following these steps:

    In the Disk Manager window, click the button beneath the photo of the disk whose warning threshold you want to change.

    In the Disk Information window for that disk, select the number in the field that's between the words Notify at and % full, then type a new number.

    Click the OK button in the Disk Information window, then click the OK button in the notifier that appears. The notifier and the Disk Information window disappear.

You can also customize the type of warning message you receive through the System Error Settings control panel. To open the control panel, double-click the syserrpanel icon on the Control Panels page of the Icon Catalog, or click the words System Error Settings now.

To increase the amount of available disk space, see "Freeing Up Disk Space." If you have a second disk and you would like to free up space on your system disk, see "Taking Advantage of a Second Disk."

Checking Disk Setup Information

You can view the Disk Information window for a particular disk in two ways:

The Disk Information window shows:

Any Privileged User can use this window to change disk setup information. Click a topic for more information:

Setting Up a New Disk

When you physically connect a new CD-ROM, floppy, floptical, or SyQuest disk drive, the system automatically mounts the disk so it is ready to use the next time you start the system (for details on each mount point, see "Setting Up SCSI Peripherals"). When you physically connect a new hard disk, you must use the Disk Manager to specify the mount point for the disk.

After you connect the new disk, start the Disk Manager by choosing "Disk Manager" from the System toolchest or by clicking the words Disk Manager now.

Any Privileged User can name the disk and make it accessible to other users by following these steps:

    Click the button under the picture of the new disk that you want to access.

    The button is labeled with the disk's drive controllernumber and drive address number, and, for a new disk, the Free Space column will be empty.

    In the Disk Information window, click the Mount button.

    In the Set Up Disk window, type in a name for the disk that starts with /; for example, if you plan to use the disk for image data, you might name it /images. (The name of the disk, which is really just the name of a directory, is also referred to as the mount point.)

    See also "Taking Advantage of a Second Disk" for tips on using the disk in a way that virtually increases the size of your system disk.

    If you are an experienced UNIX administrator, you can change the default disk setup information at this time. See "Changing Default Disk Setup Information."

    When the information is correct, click OK.

    The Disk Information window now shows detailed information about the mounted disk. To place the new disk directory on your desktop, drag its folder icon onto the desktop.

Changing Default Disk Setup Information

If you are an experienced UNIX administrator, you can change the default disk setup information for both new and existing option disks. You cannot use the Disk Information window to change setup information on the system disk.

If the Set Up Disk window for the disk is not already open, choose "Disk Manager" from the System toolchest, then click the button beneath the photo of the disk. If it's a new disk, click the Mount button in the Disk Information window; if it's an existing, mounted disk, click the Unmount button, then click the Mount button.

To change the defaults, follow these steps:

    Click in the box next to Show/Modify Defaults.

    Add or remove checkmarks in the boxes:


    When the Access Point and check boxes are filled in correctly, click the OK button.

    The Disk Information window now shows detailed information about the mounted disk. To place the new disk directory on your desktop, drag its folder icon onto the desktop.

Removing a Disk

You typically remove a floppy, floptical, SyQuest, or CD-ROM disc by selecting the drive icon and choosing "Eject" from the Selected toolchest. You can also eject a disk from the Disk Information window by clicking the Eject button.

Caution: The manufacturer does not recommend ejecting removable media using the hardware eject button on the device; you may lose data if the removable media is writeable.

If you plan to physically remove a hard disk drive from your system, you should first unmount the disk using the Disk Manager. If you do not, you will not compromise any data, but your system may start up more slowly as it spends time looking for a missing drive.

Note: At this time, you can unmount IPI, ESDI, VSCSI, SMD, and SCSI disks using this tool. However, once the disk is unmounted, the tool is capable of re-mounting only SCSI disks.

To unmount a drive, follow these steps:

    If the Disk Manager is not already running, start it by choosing "Disk Manager" from the System toolchest or by clicking the words Disk Manager now.

    Click the button beneath the photo of the drive that you plan to disconnect.

    In the Disk Information window, click the Unmount button.

    In the confirmation dialog that appears, click the OK button.

    Click the OK button in the Disk Information window, and click the Close button in the Disk Manager.

If you ever reconnect the drive, see "Setting Up a New Disk" to mount the disk again.

Formatting, Verifying, and Remaking Filesystems on a Fixed Disk

You can use the Disk Information window to erase and reformat, verify, or re-create a filesystem on optional disks. You cannot use these features on a system disk; the buttons are greyed out on the Disk Information window of your system disk.

Note: This tool considers the system disk to have a drive address number of 1 and a drive controller number of 0. If you have an extra system disk that you want to format as an option disk, change its physical drive address number to a free address other than 1, install it in a system that already has a system disk, then use the Initialize button in the Disk Information window as described below.

Caution: All three buttons destroy all data on the disk or filesystem that you chose. If the data is important, back it up onto another system or onto a tape (see "Backing Up Files") before you use the buttons.

To initialize (format), verify, or re-create filesystems on a disk, follow these steps:

    If you want to save any of the information on the disk, back it up onto another system or onto a tape (see "Backing Up Files.")

    If the Disk Manager is not running, start it by choosing "Disk Manager" from the System toolchest or by clicking the words Disk Manager now.

    In the Disk Manager window, click the button beneath the photo of the drive.

    In the Disk Information window, unmount the disk that you want to work on by clicking the Unmount button.

    Choose the operation that you want to perform on the disk or filesystem.


    After you click the button, you see


    Close the status window by clicking its Close button.

    Mount the disk.

Formatting Floppy and Floptical Disks

When you format a new floppy or floptical disk or change its existing formatting information, you remove all data from that disk. The format window lets you create either Macintosh or DOS disks; it does not let you format SyQuest media.

Note: Files that you plan to copy onto DOS disks must follow DOS naming conventions; they can contain no more than eight characters, a period (.), and a three character extension (for example, projects.exe uses the maximum file name length). If your file names are too long, or are in an incorrect format, you will not be able to copy files onto the floppy or floptical disk. You will see an error message that reports an "I/O Error."

To use a disk that you have previously formatted on a Macintosh or DOS system, insert the disk in your drive and double-click the drive's icon to access the disk. You can then freely copy files back and forth between your system and the disk. To eject the disk, select the drive's icon and choose "Eject" from the Selected toolchest.

Note: The floppy drive cannot read or format 800KB Macintosh diskettes. It can both read and format 720KB diskettes.

To format a disk, follow these steps:

    If the Disk Manager is not running, start it by choosing "Disk Manager" from the System toolchest or by clicking the words Disk Manager now.

    Insert the disk into the drive; then, when the Desktop Access icon in the Disk Manager changes to show that it contains the disk, click the button beneath the photo of the drive.

    In the Disk Information window, click the Initialize button; in the warning dialog that appears, click the OK button.

    The formatting window describes the current format of the disk.


    When the information is correct in the formatting window, click OK to start the initialization.

    When the initialization is complete, click the Cancel button in the format window.

You can now access the formatted disk by double-clicking the floppy drive icon on your desktop or in the Desktop Access column of the Disk Manager.

If you ever experience problems with the system not recognizing floppy or floptical disks, or not allowing you to write to them, see "Troubleshooting Problems with Removable Media."

Freeing Up Disk Space

You can regain used disk space in several ways:

    Empty your dumpster by choosing "Empty Dumpster" from the Desktop toolchest.

    Remove or archive old or large files or directories.


    If your system disk is almost full, check:


    Remove optional or application software; see "Removing Installed Software."

Adding and Deleting Swap Space

The Swap Manager lets you add logical swap space and virtual swap space to ensure that large applications can run on your system. It also lets you delete swap space when you no longer need it. For a definition of swap space and information on determining whether you need more, see "Understanding Swap Space."

If the Swap Manager is not already running, start it by choosing "System Manager" from the System toolchest, choosing "System Admin Tools" from the Tools menu in the System Manager window, then double-clicking the Swap Manager icon in the Administration Tools pane. Or, click the words Swap Manager now.

Any Privileged User can use the Swap Manager to add or delete swap space. Click a topic for more information:

About the Swap Manager Window

You must be familiar with the terms and concepts of swap space use in order to understand the information in the Swap Manager window. If you are unfamiliar with swap space, see "Understanding Swap Space."

The top portion of the window contains this information:

The pane in the bottom half of the window shows each configured swap area on a separate line. The pane contains these columns:

The bottom of the window contains these buttons:

Understanding Swap Space

Each time you start an application, it communicates to the system that it needs a certain amount of memory in order to run. The system then reserves the amount of physical memory (RAM) that the application requires. If the application needs more memory than is available in RAM, the system then uses a portion of your disk (a file called /dev/swap) as supplemental memory. This portion of your disk (the file) is known as swap space.

Once the system reserves the required memory (RAM plus swap space), the space is no longer available for use by other applications. If you regularly run an application that requires more memory than the system provides by default (the amount of physical RAM plus the default 40 MB /dev/swap file), or if you run several large applications at once, you may need to add more swap space.

When you are nearly out of swap space, applications run very slowly; when you are completely out of space, the system may stop an application or UNIX process from running to avoid a system crash. The system notifies you that you need more swap space in three ways:

You can add one or both of the following types of swap space:

Adding Swap Space

You can add both logical swap space and virtual swap space using the Swap Manager. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of swap space, please see "Understanding Swap Space" before adding either type of swap space.

If the Swap Manager is not already running, start it by choosing "System Manager" from the System toolchest, choosing "System Admin Tools" from the Tools menu in the System Manager window, then double-clicking the Swap Manager icon in the Administration Tools pane. Or, click the words Swap Manager now.

Any Privileged User can add swap space by following these steps:

    In the Swap Manager window, click the Add button.

    Choose the type of swap space you want to add by clicking the radio button next to one of the three types:


    Click the OK button.

    If you chose to add NFS mounted swap space, you may see a notifier that says you do not have appropriate access permissions on any mounted filesystems. In this case, the Administrator of the remote system must make sure the filesystem was shared correctly; see "Sharing Directories for Use as NFS Mounted Swap Space."

    In the window that appears, fill in the appropriate information, then click the OK button.

    For details on each window, see "Adding File Swap Space,""Adding Virtual Swap Space," or "Adding NFS Mounted File Swap Space."

    The Swap Manager window now shows the new swap space. For details on this window, see "About the Swap Manager Window."

    Click the Cancel button to close the Swap Manager.

Adding File Swap Space

When you add file swap space, you increase the amount of logical swap space available to your system by the size of the file, i.e., when you create a 50 MB swap file, an additional 50 MB of swap space becomes available. At the same time, the amount of disk space available for data storage is reduced by the size of the file. For more information, see "Understanding Swap Space."

If the window that lets you specify the size and location of the swap file is not open, see "Adding Swap Space."

To fill in the information, follow these steps:

    Decide how many megabytes of disk space you want to allocate as swap space, then enter that amount in the Allocate (MB) field.

    If you have more than one filesystem on your system, use the menu button next to Filesystem to choose the filesystem on which the Swap Manager should create the file.

    When the information is correct, click the OK button.

    A notifier that shows the name of the swap file appears; once the file has been created (several seconds later), it disappears.

    The Swap Manager window now shows the new swap space. For details on this window, see "About the Swap Manager Window."

    Click the Cancel button to close the Swap Manager.

Adding Virtual Swap Space

When you add virtual swap space, you create a file that the system considers to be a certain size (e.g., 40MB) but actually occupies no disk space. In this way you virtually increase the amount of available swap space. This lets you run more applications at the same time, but may cause you to run out of logical swap space and potentially lose data. For more information, see "Understanding Swap Space."

If the window that lets you specify the size of the virtual swap space is not open, see "Adding Swap Space."

To fill in the information, follow these steps:

    Decide how many megabytes of virtual swap space you want to add, then enter that amount in the Allocate (MB) field.

    When the information is correct, click the OK button.

    The Swap Manager window now shows the new swap space. For details on this window, see "About the Swap Manager Window."

    Click the Cancel button to close the Swap Manager.

Adding NFS Mounted File Swap Space

When you add file swap space on an NFS mounted system, you increase the amount of logical swap space available to your system by the size of the file, i.e., when you create a 50 MB swap file, an additional 50 MB of swap space becomes available. At the same time, the amount of disk space available for data storage on the NFS mounted system (not your own system) is reduced by the size of the file. For more information, see "Understanding Swap Space."

You can use an NFS mounted filesystem for additional swap space only if the filesystem was shared with special read and write permissions. For details, see "Sharing Directories for Use as NFS Mounted Swap Space."

If the window that lets you specify the size and location of the swap file is not open, see "Adding Swap Space."

To fill in the information, follow these steps:

    Decide how many megabytes of disk space you want to allocate as swap space, then enter that amount in the Allocate (MB) field.

    If more than one NFS mounted filesystem is available, use the menu button next to Filesystem to choose the filesystem on which the Swap Manager should create the file.

    When the information is correct, click the OK button.

    A notifier that shows the name of the swap file appears; once the file has been created (several seconds later), it disappears.

    The Swap Manager window now shows the new swap space. For details on this window, see "About the Swap Manager Window." Click the Cancel button to close the Swap Manager.

Deleting Swap Space

You can use the Swap Manager to delete all virtual swap space and logical swap space that you created using the Swap Manager. You cannot use it to delete the default logical swap space (the /dev/swap file) or to delete the virtual swap space created with the chkconfig command (/.swap.virtual). When you delete logical swap space (a swap file), you regain disk space; for example, when you delete 40 MB of logical swap space, you regain 40 MB of disk space.

If the Swap Manager is not already running, start it by choosing "System Manager" from the System toolchest, choosing "System Admin Tools" from the Tools menu in the System Manager window, then double-clicking the Swap Manager icon in the Administration Tools pane. Or, click the words Swap Manager now.

Any Privileged User can delete swap space by following these steps:

    In the Swap Manager window, click on the line that contains the swap space that you want to delete.

    Click the Delete button.

    A notifier appears that asks whether you really want to delete the swap space. Click OK to delete the space, or click Cancel to retain the swap space.

    The Swap Manager window no longer shows the swap space. For details on this window, see "About the Swap Manager Window." Click the Cancel button to close the Swap Manager.

Using Disk Space on Other Systems

Depending on whether your system and the system whose space you want to access have the optional NFS software installed and turned on (to check, see "Turning On NIS and NFS"), you can use another system's disk space in two ways:

About NFS

If you have NFS installed and turned on (to check, see "Turning On NIS and NFS"), you can access remote directories using either of two methods:

Overview of the NFS Mount Manager

A Privileged User can use the NFS Mount Manager to access a directory or filesystem on another system's disk, and to view mounted and temporarily unmounted filesystems. The NFS Mount Manager works only if your system and the other systems you want to access have the optional NFS software installed and turned on; to check, see "Turning On NIS and NFS." If you are unfamiliar with NFS, see "About NFS."

If the NFS Mount Manager is not already running, start it by choosing "NFS Mount Manager" from the System toolchest or by clicking the words NFS Mount Manager now.

The NFS Mount Manager window shows:

For more information, click a topic:

Accessing a Remote Directory Using Automount

You can use automount only if you have the optional NFS software installed and turned on; to check, see "Turning On NIS and NFS." If you are unfamiliar with NFS, see "About NFS."

To place a public directory from another system onto your desktop, follow these steps:

    Choose "Hosts" from the Search For rollover menu in the Find toolchest, and use the online help in the Search window to locate the system whose directories you want to access.

    When the system's icon appears in the window, double-click it to open the remote system's System Manager window.

    Drag the directory that you want to use from the Shared Resources area of the remote System Manager window onto your desktop. You can now use the directory just as you use other directories on your system.

    Note: If you cannot drag the directory or peripheral onto your desktop, see "Troubleshooting Shared Resources Problems."

    When you no longer need the directory, select it, and choose "Put Away" from the Selected toolchest. This removes the directory from your desktop, but it does not remove it from your filesystem.

Accessing a Remote Directory Using a Permanent Mount

The NFS Mount Manager works only if your system and the other systems you want to access have the optional NFS software installed and turned on; to check, see "Turning On NIS and NFS." If you are unfamiliar with NFS, see "About NFS."

You can use the NFS Mount Manager to create new permanent mounts (see "Creating New Permanent Mounts"), and to remount temporarily unmounted filesystems (see "Remounting Temporarily Unmounted Filesystems").

Creating New Permanent Mounts

If the NFS Mount Manager is not already running, start it by choosing "NFS Mount Manager" from the System toolchest or by clicking the words NFS Mount Manager now.

Any Privileged User can access (mount) a new remote filesystem or directory by following these steps:

    In the NFS Mount Manager window, click the New button.

    Type the name of the system whose disk space you want to access in the Remote system name field.

    You can also choose "Hosts" from the Find toolchest to find a system, then drag its icon into the Remote system name drop pocket.

    Click the Lookup button (or press <Enter>) to find all public directories on the remote system.

    If no folder icons appear in the Available filesystems list, the Administrator or Privileged User on the remote system has not made any filesystems or directories available using the "Share" command. (See also "Making Your Disk Space Available to Other Systems".)

    Drag the folder that you want to access from the Available filesystems list into the Mount this filesystem drop pocket, or type the folder's full pathname into the field.

    The Access filesystem from field automatically suggests a local directory, or mount point, from which you can access the remote directory. To access the remote directory from a different local directory, type in a different directory name; be sure to use a full pathname, starting with /.

    If you are an experienced IRIX administrator, you can set advanced options by clicking the down arrow next to Set advanced NFS parameters. Do not change these values unless you are very familiar with NFS.

    When all the information is correct, click the Apply button.

    When the directory is successfully mounted, you see a notifier.


    The NFS Mount Manager window shows all the remote filesystems and directories that you have mounted.

Remounting Temporarily Unmounted Filesystems

If the NFS Mount Manager is not already running, start it by choosing "NFS Mount Manager" from the System toolchest or by clicking the words NFS Mount Manager now.

Any Privileged User can remount a temporarily unmounted filesystem (see "Removing Access to (Unmounting) Remote Directories") by following these steps:

    In the Unmounted filesystems area of the NFS Mount Manager window, select the filesystem or directory that you want to mount.

    Click the Existing button under Mount Options. The filesystem moves to the Mounted filesystems area.

Removing Access to (Unmounting) Remote Directories

A Privileged User can use the NFS Mount Manager to permanently or temporarily unmount a remote directory or filesystem, making it unavailable to all users on the system.

Note: You cannot use the NFS Mount Manager to unmount automounted filesystems.

If the NFS Mount Manager is not already running, start it by choosing "NFS Mount Manager" from the System toolchest or by clicking the words NFS Mount Manager now.

To unmount a directory or filesystem, follow these steps:

    In the Mounted filesystems area of the NFS Mount Manager window, select the folder icon that you want to unmount.

    Permanently or temporarily unmount the directory.

To mount a filesystem or directory, see "Accessing a Remote Directory Using a Permanent Mount."

Accessing an InSight Document Server

Many sites set up a server system that contains online books (and online help) so you can seamlessly access the books as if they resided on your own system. If your site has such a document server, and your system has NFS installed (to check, see "Turning On NIS and NFS"), you can free up some of your own disk space by removing some of your books and can set up your system to access the books on the server.

Note: When accessing the InSight library over the network, the online books and help will not work as quickly as they would if they were installed on your own system.

If you plan to use online help as well as online books, see "About Online Help" before accessing the server. Otherwise, see "Setting Up Access to the Document Server."

About Online Help

Many of the standard desktop applications provide online help. The content of the help comes directly from the online book for a particular application. For example, when you choose a topic from the Help menu in a Directory View window, the help system reads information from IRIS Essentials and displays it in a help window.

The help system finds the correct help for each application using a set of files in the /usr/share/help directory. Because of this dependency, if you plan to use online help, all books that the help system accesses must be installed in the same location: either on your system, on the server system, or on a CD (see "Using a CD as a Read-Only InSight Document Library.") For fastest access to the online help, keep all help books installed on your system (see also "Storing Applications or Support Files on a Second Disk").

To find the complete list of books that contain help and are currently installed on your system, follow these steps:

    Choose "Unix Shell" from the Desktop toolchest.

    Position your cursor in the shell window and type:

    versions | grep books | grep Help

    You see the full list of books that contain help.

    To close the shell window, type:

    logout

You can type this same command on the server system to find which of its books contain help.

Setting Up Access to the Document Server

To set up your system to access the document server, the Administrator of your system should follow these steps:

    Contact the Administrator of the document server system or your network administrator for this information:


    Compare the list of books you have installed on your system to the list of books available from the server to make sure the server has the same or newer versions.


    Remove any books that are currently installed on your system that you would rather access from the server.


    Start the NFS Mount Manager by choosing "NFS Mount Manager" from the System toolchest or by clicking the words NFS Mount Manager now.

    In the NFS Mount Manager window, click the New button.

    Type the name of the server system in the Remote system name field, then click the Lookup button.

    Mount the directory that contains the books.


    If you want to access online help from the server, mount the help directory.


    Close the NFS Mount Manager by clicking the Close button.

    Choose "Online Books" from the Help toolchest, and follow the instructions in the IRIS InSight Help menu to open and use the books.

If you have trouble viewing the books, try these techniques:

For alternate ways to access IRIS InSight books, see "Using a CD as a Read-Only InSight Document Library" and "Storing Applications or Support Files on a Second Disk."

Making Your Disk Space Available to Other Systems

If you have the optional NFS software installed and turned on (to check, see "Turning On NIS and NFS"), you can let people who are logged in to other systems on the network access specific directories on your system from their own desktops. This is called sharing a directory, and it essentially means you are sharing your disk space.

Any Privileged User can share directories by following these steps:

    Select the directory, then choose "Share" from the Selected toolchest or menu.

    If you see an error message and the Share window does not appear, you may not have NFS installed. To check whether it's installed and turned on, see "Turning On NIS and NFS."

    Use the Share window to specify how completely you want to share the directory, for example, you can specify whether others can only view the directory, or can both view it and copy files into it.

    For more details, click the Help button in the Share window.

    When you're finished, the directory's icon appears in the Shared Resources area of the System Manager window the next time you start the System Manager.

Sharing Directories for Use as NFS Mounted Swap Space

In rare cases, you may want to let other systems use large portions of your disk space as NFS mounted swap space. If you are unfamiliar with swap space concepts, see "Understanding Swap Space."

Caution: Sharing space in this way seriously compromises the security of your system since you must give the remote systems the ability to read and write to your directory as the Administrator (root).

To share a directory so other systems can create files that increase their logical swap space, follow these steps:

    Select the directory, then choose "Permissions" from the Selected toolchest or menu.

    In the Permissions window, make sure there are checkmarks in all boxes, allowing all users read and write permissions, then click the Apply button.

    Make sure the directory is still selected, then choose "Share" from the Selected toolchest or menu.

    If you see an error message and the Share window does not appear, you may not have NFS installed. To check whether it's installed and turned on, see "Turning On NIS and NFS."

    Use the Share window to specify that certain systems can read and write to the directory with Administrator privileges.

The directory or filesystem is now available to the systems you specified. In order for them to use it to add logical swap space, the Administrator of each system must:

    Use the NFS Mount Manager to access (mount) the directory; see "Accessing a Remote Directory Using a Permanent Mount."

    Use the Swap Manager to add NFS mounted swap space; see "Adding Swap Space."

Taking Advantage of a Second Disk

Over time, your disk may not be large enough to hold the operating system, the software applications, and the personal data created by all the people who use the system. In this case it's a good idea to add a second disk drive (see "Setting Up a New Disk").

When you add a second disk, the system suggests that you name it /disk2. This creates a new, empty directory that has the same storage capacity as the new disk. If you added a 500 MB disk, you can store 500 MB of information in /disk2. Adding this disk, however, does not automatically increase the capacity of the system disk. Unless you explicitly store some personal data files or some applications in /disk2, you will continue to run out of disk space.

This section offers two options for effectively using a second disk:

Storing Home Directories on a Second Disk

A typical user stores most data files in his home directory, so you can usually free up substantial space on your system disk by moving home directories to your second disk. To do this, you must first move the home directory, then change the name of the home directory in the User Manager to match the new pathname of the directory.

The example below moves user joe's home directory from /usr/people/joe to the second disk, /disk2. To find the real pathname of your second disk, choose "Disk Manager" from the System toolchest, and double-click the icon that appears in the Access column for your second disk. The full pathname is shown in the title bar of the Directory View window that appears.

Caution: The steps below move all files and preserve permissions, but please proceed carefully. Skipping a step or mistyping a command can cause you to lose data. If you are unfamiliar with UNIX commands, you may want to contact an experienced UNIX administrator for help.

Only the Administrator can move home directories by following these steps:

    Make sure the user(s) whose home directory you are going to move is not logged in.

    Log out, and log in to the system as root.

    Choose "Backup & Restore" from the System toolchest, and back up all home directories that you plan to move (see "Backing Up Files.")

    Open a shell window by choosing "Unix Shell" from the Desktop toolchest.

    Move into the /usr/people directory and then create a copy of the files on /disk2 by typing:

    cd /usr/people

    tar cBf - joe | (cd /disk2; tar xBf -)

    The copy may take several minutes depending on how much data the directory contains. The copy is complete when you see the system prompt (#). The full pathname of the new directory is /disk2/joe.

    Make sure the copy worked.


    Remove the old directory and create a link from the old directory to the new (this ensures that remote access via NFS continues to work). In the shell window, type:

    cd /usr/people

    rm -rf joe

    ln -s ../../disk2/joe .

    Be sure to include the period (.) at the end of the last command.

    Start the User Manager by choosing "User Manager" from the System toolchest or by clicking the words User Manager now.

    In the User Manager window, double-click the joe icon.

    In the User Account Information window, type the new pathname in the Home directory field, for example, /disk2/joe, then click the OK button.

    Note: Be sure to do this for every user whose home directory you moved. If you do not do this, the user can not log in to the system.

    Close the User Manager window by clicking the Close button.

The next time the user logs in, the desktop will look identical. Only the full pathname that appears in the title bar of the home directory window is different.

Storing Applications or Support Files on a Second Disk

Many applications have accompanying support files or data libraries that can take up many megabytes of disk space. If an application has a particularly large directory of these types of files, you may want to move that directory to the second disk.

The application knows the full pathname of its supporting directories, so you cannot simply move the directories onto the second disk. You need to first move the directory, then make a linked copy of the directory and give that linked copy the full pathname that the application recognizes.

A good example of such an application is IRIS InSight, the online document library viewer. All of the books that InSight accesses reside in the /usr/share/Insight directory. If you have many books installed, you may have up to 100 MB of data stored in this directory. The example below shows you how to move this directory onto your second disk.

Caution: The steps below move all files and preserve permissions, but please proceed carefully. Skipping a step or mistyping a command can cause you to lose data. If you are unfamiliar with UNIX commands, you may want to contact an experienced UNIX administrator for help.

Only the Administrator can move the support directories onto a second disk. For example, to move the InSight support directories onto /disk2, follow these steps:

    Log out, and log in to the system as root.

    Open a shell window by choosing "Unix Shell" from the Desktop toolchest.

    Move into the /usr/share directory and create a copy of the files on /disk2 by typing:

    cd /usr/share

    tar cBf - Insight | (cd /disk2; tar xBf -)

    The copy may take several minutes depending on how much data the directory contains. The copy is complete when you see the system prompt (#). The full pathname of the new directory is /disk2/Insight.

    Make sure the copy worked.


    Remove the old directory and create a link from the old directory to the new (this ensures that remote access via NFS continues to work). In the shell window, type:

    cd /usr/share

    rm -rf Insight

    ln -s ../../disk2/Insight .

    Be sure to include the period (.) at the end of the last command.

    The full pathname of the linked copy is now /usr/share/Insight, which is the original name of the directory that you moved to your second disk. The application will now find the linked copy in the appropriate location, and will be able to access all its support files.

For alternate ways to access IRIS InSight books, see "Accessing an InSight Document Server" and "Using a CD as a Read-Only InSight Document Library."

Using Disk Space on CDs and Floppy Disks

This section describes how to use CDs and floppy (or floptical) disks in two ways:

Using Removable Media to Transfer and Store Information

You can view the data on CDs or floppy disks by inserting the media into a drive, then double-clicking the desktop icon that corresponds to the drive. When the media contains standard directories and files, this opens a standard Directory View window. When you double-click a CD drive icon whose CD contains a distribution directory, the Software Manager starts.

You can copy information to and from a writable floppy disk by dragging icons between Directory View windows (see also "Copying Files to and from a Floppy Disk" in IRIS Essentials). You can copy information from a CD onto your system by dragging files from its Directory View window to another Directory View window.

You can use the same desktop methods to view and copy files between your system and CD and floppy drives that are connected to other systems on the network. To locate and access remote CD or floppy drives, follow these steps:

    Choose "Disk Drives" from the Search For rollover menu in the Find toolchest

    In the Search tool, choose "CD-ROM," "floppy," or "floptical" from the menu button next to whose type, then click the Search button. For more information, use the Help menu in the Search tool.

    After a few moments, all the drives on your immediate network that match the type you chose appear in the Search window.

    Drag the drive that you want to use onto your desktop.

Using a CD as a Read-Only InSight Document Library

CDs are very useful for storing large amounts of information that you want to access but do not want to change. The manufacturer of your system uses CDs to distribute software products and associated IRIS InSight libraries of online books.

You typically use the CD one time to install software (see also Chapter 4, "Installing and Removing Software"); you may want to use the library of books daily. You could install all the books on your system's disk(s) for convenent access (see also "Storing Applications or Support Files on a Second Disk"), or you could install a few, frequently-used books on your disk and set up your system so it can access the remaining books directly from the CD.

Each product CD that has associated online books stores those books in the directory named insight. Once you set up your system, you can access the books on any product CD by inserting the CD in the drive, then choosing "Online Books" from the Help toolchest. As long as the CD is in the drive, the books are accessible.

Note: The manufacturer recommends keeping the standard end user books installed on your system, as the online help system accesses those books to provide context-sensitive help for each tool; see also "About Online Help."

The example in this section assumes that you have one CD drive, and that it's mounted at /CDROM (for more information on the mount point, see "Setting Up SCSI Peripherals"). Only the Administrator can set up the system to access the books on a CD by following these steps:

    Log out, and log in to the root account.

    Insert the CD into the drive.

    Double-click the root (/) folder on the desktop to see its Directory View window, then double-click the /usr folder. You should now have two open Directory View windows, one for / and one for /usr.

    In the / Directory View window, edit the pathname (text entry) field so it reads:

    /CDROM/insight

    In the /usr Directory View window, edit the pathname (text entry) field so it reads:

    /usr/share/Insight

    Now the two Directory View window show the contents of /CDROM/insight and /usr/share/Insight.

    Press and continue to hold down the <Ctrl> and <Shift> keys, then drag the SGI_bookshelves folder icon from the /CDROM/insight Directory View window into the /usr/share/Insight Directory View window. After dragging the icon, you can release the <Ctrl> and <Shift> keys.

    In the /usr/share/Insight Directory View window, rename the SGI_bookshelves folder CD_bookshelf.

    Drag the CD_bookshelf folder onto the library folder that is also in the /usr/share/Insight Directory View window.

    Choose "Online Books" from the Help toolchest. The InSight viewer shows the same set of bookshelves that were there before you accessed the CD, but now the bookshelves contain both the books that are installed on your disk and those that are on the CD.

    When you eject the CD, the books that are on the CD will not appear the next time you start InSight.

    When you insert another product CD that contains a different set of books, the new books appear on the appropriate bookshelf the next time you start InSight.

For alternate ways to access IRIS InSight books, see "Accessing an InSight Document Server" and "Storing Applications or Support Files on a Second Disk."

If you have books installed on your system that you can now access from the CD, you may want to remove them from your system to free up some disk space. Remember, however, that the books will be available to you only when the appropriate CD is in your drive.

It's best to keep the books you use most frequently, along with the standard end user books (see also "About Online Help"), installed on your system.

Caution: If you decide to remove the standard end user books, you will remove the book you are now using. Please print out this section before you continue.

To to remove the standard end user books and access both the books and their associated online help from the CD, the Administrator must follow these steps:

    Log out, and log in to the root account.

    Remove all the books that contain help.


    Insert the standard system software CD into the drive.

    When the CD drive icon shows the inserted CD, double-click it to see a Directory View window that shows the contents of the CD (/CDROM).

    Open the / directory on your desktop to see its Directory View window, then edit the pathname (text entry) field so it reads:

    /usr/share

    You should now have two open Directory View windows: one shows the contents of /CDROM, and the other shows /usr/share.

    In the /usr/share Directory View window, select the help folder, and choose "Remove" from the Selected menu.

    Press and continue to hold down the <Ctrl> and <Shift> keys, then drag the help folder icon from the /CDROM Directory View window into the /usr/share Directory View window. After dragging the icon, you can release the <Ctrl> and <Shift> keys.

    The /usr/share Directory View window now contains a folder named help, which is a linked copy of the directory on the CD.

    Try the online help by choosing a help topic from the Help menu in the /usr/share Directory View window.

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