[cfarm-users] GCC112 disk space

[Segher Boessenkool]

On Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 10:40:07AM -0800, Noah Misch via cfarm-users wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 05:46:12PM +0100, Martin Guy via cfarm-users wrote:
> > On 21/01/2019, Aymeric via cfarm-users
> > <cfarm-users at lists.tetaneutral.net> wrote:
> > > here is the list of top 10 user, if you're in
> > > you should consider making some space ;-)
> > 
> > I don't think that publicly flogging the top ten is the best strategy
> > for two reasons:
> > 1) It's embarassing and unloving
> 
> I didn't interpret it as a flogging or even as impolite.  This shared system
> faces a shared challenge, and the request named the people best able to help
> with that challenge.

That's not true.  There are about 50 users with more than 10GB (out of
nearing 700 users total).  This adds up.

Getting the top users to clean up a bit is easy, sure.  But disk will run
out again, and it will get tighter and tighter every time.  Asking only the
top users to take action is a short-term fix for a long-term problem.

> > 2) The biggest users may be using more because they are doing more
> > work for free than anyone else.
> 
> Right.  High disk usage is not a transgression, but it does create a duty to
> do yet more work as the disk runs out of space.

On gcc110 I used to do my cross-compile tests.  That takes >50GB _per run_.
And I'd like to do five or six runs, to compare various combine.c tunings
usually.  This cannot be done on gcc110 anymore (not even *two* runs, not
without some gymnastics).

I'll move that to another machine now, but the point remains.  When I
started doing this the disk was half empty (or whatever; I didn't keep
logs).  That's 800GB give or take.

> > 3) It tends to make the other hundreds of users to think "Oh, look at
> > those big hogs. I don't need to do anything" - yet the many can make
> > more of a difference than the few
> 
> In this case, the top ten represent 51% of the usage.  Hence, I think it was
> reasonable to not seek help from hundreds of users representing the other 49%.

But the top ten are the people who use the systems the most, and do need
the disk space.  Of course they *also* need to clean up, that's not the
point; but everyone else needs to do that, as well.  Pretty much all of
our systems have too small disk for 700 users who don't clean up.


Segher