Washington University Center For Engineering Computing Unix Instructional Account Policies The following document outlines the rules holding for all users of the instructional Unix machines (cec1, cec2, cec3, the 3B2's, Unix PCs and others). Please read these rules carefully so that you know what your responsibilities as a computer user are. Unless otherwise noted, these rules apply to any and all of the instructional Unix machines. The Washington University honor code and any class-specific policies of individual instructors exist in addition to the rules listed here. More information about how to use Unix and about the VMS machines can be found in the CEC handbook. Failure to adhere to these rules may result in termination of your account and disciplinary actions by the University. Questions about these rules should be addressed to the CEC Secretary in Lopata 407 or by mailing to requests. When in doubt the best course is to be considerate of the other users of the systems. Disk quotas are imposed to prevent individual users from filling up the disk, thus making it impossible for other users to get any work done. This can occur either through accident, laziness, or malice. Realize that we do not have enough disk for every user to use their entire quota. Keep your usage as low as you can. Requests for higher quotas should be addressed to the Secretary in the CEC office. Before a quota will be raised, all non-class work will have to be removed. .sh 2 "Temporary Storage" .pp Files and directories may be stored in /tmp or /usr/tmp for short periods of time (but may disappear at any time). Storing files anywhere else, besides a user's home directory, is not allowed and will be considered a serious offense. .sp .sh 1 "Background Jobs" .pp Unix provides many useful ways to manage background jobs and users are encouraged to take advantage of these features. You must, however, be considerate. If you leave a large background job running, you are responsible for it and all the cpu time it uses. Unattended background jobs may be killed at any time by the System Manager. Frequent abusers may have cpu limits imposed. .sp .sh 1 "Printers" .pp There are several printers located throughout the Engineering School. CEC has no full time clerks to attend to the printers but, instead, relies on responsible users to help keep the printers in working order. If you are unfamiliar with how to operate any of the printers, please ask a consultant to help you or talk to the Secretary in the CEC office (where paper and new ribbons can also be obtained). .pp Users are expected to collect their output promptly and to keep the printer area clean of waste paper. A shelf is provided for filing the other users' output, and should there be several jobs on the printer when a user goes for output, that user is expected to separate and file each job separately. This is very important. Abusers of this trust who are caught will have their ability to print revoked. .pp The print software has a built-in quota mechanism. Users should take care to use the allotment carefully if they plan on a lot of printing in one day. Please limit your printing of large jobs if you notice that the printer room is especially busy. Good times to print large jobs are late at night or before lunchtime. .sp .sh 1 "System Hogs" .pp Some programs use excessive amounts of the cpu or virtual memory, and should not be used during high load periods. The command "ps", for example, is a great hog. During periods of high load do not continually run "ps" to see what is causing the load -- you will discover that you are. Some other commands which would be good to avoid when the system is loaded are: top, tell, w, rn, vnews, readnews and the like. .sp .sh 1 "Terminals" .pp The number of available terminals is limited. As such, they must be considered a scarce resource. .sp .sh 2 "Dialups" .pp There are 12 modems on the codex which are available for student dialups. These modems are usually not very loaded but they should be used sparingly during periods of high need (finals week etc..). Users of modems will sometimes come across some other user's login. The appropriate action in this situation is to log the other user off and then log in yourself. If there are incidents because of the modems, the modems will be removed. .sp .sh 2 Rlogin .pp Using the system just as a server to log into another machine is not a productive use of an account. It takes up a terminal better used by someone who has local work to do. If you can avoid doing this by walking to another terminal, then you should. .sp .sh 2 "Multiple Logins" .pp Users should not log in on more than one terminal at a time. This is rude and usually unnecessary. During times when terminals are scarce, a user must give up any extra terminal(s) to anyone who needs them. .sp .sh 2 "Terminal Room Etiquette" .pp Eating, drinking and smoking are not allowed in any of the terminal rooms. Users who violate this rule will do their computing from home. .sp .sh 1 "Account Use" .pp The only user allowed to use a particular account is the person in whose name it was issued. Users are responsible for all use of their accounts and accounts may not be loaned or shared. Sharing your password, using someone else's account or allowing someone else to use your account is considered a serious offense which may result in the account being turned off and disciplinary action. .sp .sh 2 "Non-Class Work" .pp Non-class work of a personal or educational nature (mail, your own programming projects etc..) is allowed, but only when the load is reasonable. Personal business activities and departmental research are never appropriate and accounts used for these purposes will be revoked. Class work takes priority over everything, be it terminals, dialups, cpu, memory or disk space. .sp .sh 2 "Games" .pp The games in /usr/games are automatically regulated and may be played whenever the system load is low. Personal games are also welcome but will be deleted if they are played at inappropriate times. .sp .sh 1 "Password Entries (edpasswd)" .pp The facility to change the finger field of the password entry should be used with maturity. This field is used by managers, professors and users to find out more information about a user, and misleading information will not be appreciated. .sp .sh 1 "Mail" .pp Mail should only be used to send messages to people you know or who need to know something from you. Do not use mail to send large, useless files to random users or generally annoy people with unsolicited messages. Mail is a sacred facility and should be respected. Intentional abuse of mail will result in termination of your account. .sp .sh 2 "News" .pp Campus-wide postings should be brief, and non-frivolous. News posted to the international USENET or BITNET networks should be very well considered as it reflects on the entire Engineering School. If posting privileges are abused they will be revoked. .sp .sh 2 "Large Mail Spool Files" .pp Keep your mail in your own mailbox in your own directory. Do not use the system mail box to keep large amounts of mail, as it must be shared by everybody, and there is a limited amount of file space. Users who keep a voluminous system mailbox file may one day find it no longer there. .sp .sh 2 "Nom' de Plume" .pp Sending mail as another user (either real or imagined) is not permitted. No matter how clever you are, it will be discovered. As above, this is considered a serious offense. .sp .sh 1 "Privacy" .pp All user accounts are considered the private domain of the user who owns them. All users should expect that, regardless of the protections set on their files, they will not be read by others. System Management personnel will only view users' files under exceptional circumstances. Files belonging to the system are important to keep the system running smoothly and serving users, and should also be treated with respect. Some basic, but not encompassing rules are: .ip \(bu No user should attempt to move, delete or otherwise alter any file not belonging to them. This includes all system and user files which are not your own. .ip \(bu No user should attempt to read, copy, alter or gain access to any file belonging to another user unless specifically asked to by that user. .ip \(bu No user should attempt to gain privileges or access to accounts and files which are not their own. .pp These rules should be taken very seriously as violation of any one of them will result in severe punishments.