*accounting
*account
*credit
*filespace
*income
*inhibit
*inhibited
*inhibition
*space
FILESPACE ACCOUNTING

For information about your filespace in general use HELP FILES.

The TRIPOS filing system on the fileservers uses a simple accounting mechanism
based on the old 370 system.  Every night an "accounting demon" runs and scans
the entire filing system, building up a record of the total amount of disc
space in use by each person.  Every filing system object is charged to the
person who created or last wrote to it.  (In particular, note that you will
be charged for anything you leave in a T: directory.)

The filing machine makes use of the results of the demon's last run as follows.
Each person has a Daily Income (I), which is the number of Kbytes of disc he
can have allocated indefinitely, a Current Credit (C), and a Credit Limit (L).
Each night, Current Credit is adjusted according to the rule:

        C := C + I - A

where A is the number of Kbytes currently in use.  C is constrained to stay
in the range -L -> +L.  If C is negative, then the user is "inhibited", and
is not allowed to create or write to files until he ceases to be inhibited.

A message is issued at each logon, giving the current values of A, I, C and L.

The object of this accounting system is to decrease the frequency with which
fileserver packs become full, not to deny anyone filespace that they need for
their work.  The initial income values were set from the amounts of disc
actually in use by each person on 22.4.83.  Apply to IDW or NJO if you feel
you have a case for your income being altered.  If you want your income
increased, you may be asked to find someone to volunteer to have his
reduced correspondingly, as the discs are nearly always rather full.


