Disk quota exceeded when copying data

The problem. If you have data in a project directory, e.g. /proj/snic2017-1-999, and are copying the data to another project directory, e.g. /proj/uppstore2017-999, then you may get a "disk quota exceeded" error.

The cause. This happens when your (snic2017-1-999) project quota is almost full and you're copying the data without changing the group ownership of the files. Even though the destination folder is owned by a project with sufficient quota, the files will for a short time be owned by the original project. By copying the files, the earlier project's disk usage is increased and the quota is exceeded.

The solution. We offer two options:

  1. Use mv instead of cp.
  2. Give the --no-g to rsync to set the group ownership of the destination files to that of the destination directory
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