I need to use the local scratch area, may I? How? Is it backupped?

This is an old revision of the document!

You can write your data on local disk ( /scratch each linux workstation should have one) ). First you have to create a subdirectory in the /scratch/ directory using the following command from a Linux shell:
mkdir /scratch/yourusername
Put your files in /scratch/yourusername directory, not in /scratch

*Do not put important files in scratch areas, because if the local disk is damaged, we will not be able to recover its content. Please note: local directories (/scratch /data etc.) are never saved (“backupped”)!! </note> You can not access to the local scratch areas from outside SISSA through shannon.sissa.it

For I/O intensive applications (i.e. huge data on input/output files), you are strongly suggested to use the local disk of the machine where your executable is running and not your home directory**. Since the latter is accessed by the machine through the network, the reading and writing procedure could slow down terribly and make the performance of your application worse.