Andrew File System (AFS)

Last Reviewed 2021-06-28

About AFS

AFS is a distributed file system. It uses the client/server model, where all the files are stored on file server machines. Files are transferred to client machines as necessary and cached on local disk. The server part of AFS is called the AFS File Server, and the client part of AFS is called the AFS Cache Manager. AFS provides Access Control Lists (ACLs) which provide for more control and flexibility than standard Linux file permissions.

AFS provides transparent access to local and remote files by using a consistent name space. All files in AFS are found under the Linux directory /afs. Under the /afs directory are the various sites which run AFS and make their file-system available to the Internet community. These sites are called AFS Cells. The Computer Science cell name is the same as our Internet name, cs.unc.edu. Thus all files and directories under /afs/cs.unc.edu are in the Computer Science AFS file space.

Your AFS home directory space

Most users with a Computer Science account receive a home directory located at:

/afs/cs.unc.edu/home/login

Where “login” is your Computer Science login name.  Quotas are described here.

Important file restoration tip

We take a nightly online snapshot of AFS space starting at 2am.  If you accidentally delete a file that existed during the last snapshot, you can restore your file without going through Computer Services.  To see the nightly snapshot of your home directory, go to the following location:

/afs/cs.unc.edu/home/last_backup/login

This is a read only copy of your home directory as it was when the last backup snapshot was taken.