Table of Contents
Disabled Accounts
Policies
When do you disable accounts?
Accounts in the CS department are only available to students who are currently taking a CS course. Just prior to the start of each semester or term (before Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer), the accounts of all students who are not currently enrolled are disabled. Only students who are currently taking a course are permitted to access their accounts.
What happens to disabled accounts?
You lose the ability to login to your account once it has been disabled, but your files are still on the server. Eventually they are removed from the file server, tarred and compressed. We then store them for an unspecified amount of time. This allows us to restore the account of a student after he or she returns from a mission, although this is not guaranteed. Eventually the files will be deleted.
What is a locked account?
A locked account can not be re-enabled by the user. An account is locked when a student is suspected of abusing system resources, or when a student is caught in a policy violation. A locked account can only be re-enabled with permission of one of the department CSRs. For serious infractions (such as looking at pornography) accounts will remain locked for a minimum of one year. The list of account policies which you agreed to before creating your account can be accessed here: Account Policies & Lab Rules.
What do I need to do before my account is disabled?
Backup all of your files
We do not guarantee that your account will continue to exist when you need it in the future. It is your responsibility to make backups of your important data.
Copy files which you will want access to
You will not be able to change or copy files once your account has been disabled. If you will need a file, then you had better take it with you.
Clean up files in your public_html directory
Your public_html directory consists of publicly accessible files. These files will remain accessible from the CS department student website until your account is removed. This might take some time. If you do not want an old resume or old contact information sitting on the web, then you should remove it before you lose access to your account.
How can I copy my files?
Some options available to you for transferring your data off of your account before it is disabled include:
- scp (see man scp)
- Email as an attachment
- HTTP from your public_html directory
- USB Drives
The commands tar and gzip will help you to compress your files to make them more convenient to transfer.
