Project directories can be created for projects that require large amounts of storage. Instead of saving data in limited home directories or temporary repositories, the system staff can create a project directory, automounted under /p. The directory typically starts at 500GB in size, and can grow dynamically to very large sizes.

Since project members typically vary year to year, using a project directory helps the project because data can be centrally located instead of spread around in user's home directories.

To request a project directory, send a helpdesk request to cshelpdesk@virginia.edu, and specify the project name (which will be used as the name of the directory), as well as the owner of the directory and the project members who will be given read/write/execute access to the directory. Project directory names should not have any capitalized letters or special characters (for example, mygreatresearch not My_Great_Research).

Also, if your research/project is funded by a party like UVA or an outside party like NSF, NSA, etc., please state that in your request.

We use the linux “automounter” service autofs to mount network filesystems on Linux systems. Because of the way autofs works, when you first look in /p it appears to be empty:

abc1de@portal01:~$ ls /p
abc1de@portal01:~$            <-- no output

However once you attempt to access a directory, autofs quickly mounts the filesystem and now it will appear under /p

abc1de@portal01:~$ cd /p/myproject
abc1de@portal01:~$ ls /p/myproject
file1  file2  file3...
abc1de@portal01:~$ ls /p
myproject                    <-- /p/myproject will stay mounted while
                                 the directory is being used

Project Directories can be mounted on Mac or Windows computers using SAMBA. Please use the following path format to mount your project directory on Windows:

\\samba.cs.virginia.edu\p\project_name

or Linux/MacOS

smb://samba.cs.virginia.edu/p/project_name

See more about Samba shares on this page.

Each night, project directories are backed up, and these backups are kept for 30 days. So if you accidentally remove a file less than 30 days ago, we can retrieve it. Send an email to cshelpdesk@virginia.edu and include the full path of the file you wish restored.

To view which groups you are a member of

abc1de@portal01:~$ id abc1de
uid=123456(abc1de) gid=1234567(usergroup) groups=654321(myproject)

This shows that user ''abc1de'' has membership to the ''myproject'' group, which allows for access to ''/p/myproject''.