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Doing More with AFS

To increase security and reduce risk, Stanford is sunsetting its WebAFS service that is used to upload and download files to AFS.

To optimize AFS and make sure it is serving its intended functions, UIT has also taken these actions:

  • UIT no longer automatically provisions new faculty and staff members with AFS user volumes. New faculty or staff who need a personal user volume must submit a Help request.
    • This change does not impact existing AFS directories or the process for adding permissions for new individuals to those existing directories. Your existing space and everything in it remains intact.
    • This change does not impact the auto-provisioning of new AFS user volumes for students and postdocs.

​Class volumes do not expire and are kept indefinitely. This is an official academic policy, and any change to this policy must be considered by the Faculty Senate.

Once you've mastered the basics you'll want to learn more AFS tips, tricks, concepts and commands. This page should help you find practical information about working with AFS, including answers to common questions and problems.

Intermediate information

Intermediate commands

A brief summary of intermediate AFS commands.

More file permissions and ACLs

Setting even pickier file permissions, how to create file permissions for groups, and more.

Problems logging in?

Information about your AFS volume and why it sometimes disappears.

Disk space: do you have enough?

Your Unix account has a limited amount of disk space. Check your disk quota often. Clean out your disk space if you must, or request more disk space if necessary.

Frequently asked questions

Simple to complex issues that pop up all the time.

Advanced information

Advanced commands

A list of fs, pts, and vos commands, plus Unix file permissions, how to mount volumes to recover files, and advanced file system layout information and paths.

Backup images: recovering your own files

Almost all AFS volumes have a backup image from the night before available. Here's how to find it and use it.

Tokens: your identity to the file system

Since AFS is a networked file system, you must establish your identity not only on your local machine, but also to all the machines in the AFS cell.

Last modified April 12, 2023