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August 7, 1987
The Schools of Engineering at Purdue University maintain and
develop the Engineering Computer Network (ECN) facilities in order
to enhance the effectiveness of their instructional, research, and
administrative missions. The primary goal of the ECN staff is to
maximize the available computation resources within prevailing
financial constraints. Historically, and certainly at this writ-
ing, available computational resources have not adequately handled
Engineering's needs. Thus, prudent utilization of available
resources is a necessity. The following policies have been adopted
in order to maintain a reasonable level of such prudence. In rela-
tion to the Engineering missions, policies given here seek to pro-
mote usage directly related to Engineering, curtail moderately
related usage, and eliminate unrelated, illegal and abusive usage.
In addition, policies are included to help maintain an ethical and
amicable working environment for ECN users.
Only persons properly authorized may access the ECN facili-
ties. Proper authorization is provided by ECN staff or their
designate in the form of an issued in the name of the
authorized person. Users may not permit other persons to access
ECN via their account. Users who violate ECN policies may lose
their access authorization for a period of time commensurate with
the infraction. Repeat offenders may be denied access indefin-
itely.
To enable ECN staff to accurately maintain information about
the user of each account, each user has the responsibility to pro-
vide current status information to ECN staff, including school or
department of affiliation, degree program (undergraduate or gradu-
ate), expected graduation/termination date, and University position
(faculty, professional, clerical, or graduate assistant). To check
the current information ECN staff has on file, use the command
finger
If you are classified incorrectly, or the account termination date
is incorrect, contact your site specialist/manager or your school's
office which handles computer accounts.
The ECN machines are intended to provide Engineering's stu-
dents, staff, and faculty computational resources needed to meet
their recognized educational, research, and administrative commit-
ments to the Purdue University Schools of Engineering. Other uses
of personal interest (such as checkbook balancing) are proper only
if machine load is low, the terminal is not otherwise needed, and
the use is not prohibited by other applicable policy, i.e. Univer-
sity, School, Department, or ECN. Game playing is only permitted
as discussed below. Low machine load is considered to be times
when the fifteen minute system load average is below 7. The
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fifteen minute load is the last number displayed by the uptime com-
mand.
Users may harass or threaten other users, attempt to steal
passwords, files, or other user/system information, attempt to
crash, violate the integrity of, or adversely affect the activities
of a computer system. When a process is consuming excessive system
resources or objectionably degrading system response it may be ter-
minated, or its priority may be altered, without notice. Accessing
restricted facilities and remote resources without proper authori-
zation may be considered unlawful. If activities as
described above occur, the account may be disabled pending an
explanation.
Disk files not related to Engineering's missions and which
consume large amounts of space may be removed without warning by
ECN staff. When users exceed their disk allocation, they are noti-
fied by the system. The message will indicate disk usage at the
time disk accounting was performed, and the user's disk space allo-
cation limit. If the disk allocation is exceeded for an extended
period, the machine account may be disabled.
ECN Systems are operated at Purdue under license agreements
with AT&T, IMSL, PVI, and others. Under these agreements ECN Sys-
tems may be used for instructional and research purposes only. The
UNIX license binds each and every user to respect the proprietary
nature of UNIX software; the specifics of the operating system may
not be taught, nor may the system or any part thereof be moved to,
or copies released to any non-licensed sites. Under the license
agreement and Purdue policy the ECN Systems may under no cir-
cumstances be used for personal gain, or to place a third party in
a position of commercial advantage. To protect our license status,
ECN requires that any person wishing to transport software from an
ECN machine, which he or she did not personally develop, get appro-
val from Bill Simmons (EE 334B/49-43651), or Jeff Schwab (EE
258/49-44326).
Wasteful and Abusive Usage
In general, the Engineering Computer Network does not have
enough computing resources to meet the need of Engineering's stu-
dents, faculty, and staff. Therefore, all users are expected to
use good judgment in sharing limited resources. Except as indi-
cated in 2. above and in the discussion of games below, computer
usage not necessary to meet recognized educational, reseach, and
administrative commitments to the Purdue University Schools of
Engineering will be considered wasteful, abusive, and theft commit-
ted against users attempting to complete recognized work. Waste
can also be in the forms of unnecessary storage of disk files,
careless execution of high resource consuming programs, or genera-
tion of excessive printed output. The general guideline is that
disk space used for unrelated and personal interest work should be
less than 10 per cent of the user's total disk usage. Users should
also be aware that hard copy output devices are expensive to
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operate and that wasteful usage of such devices must be avoided.
Game playing is considered wasteful and abusive except as
prescribed here. The first problem, of course, is to define game
playing. Recognizing that such a definition is very difficult in
an absolute sense, ``game playing'' is defined here as development
or execution of a computer program which primarily provides amuse-
ment or pastime diversion. Game playing is permitted only when all
applicable rules given below are met.
a. Game playing is permitted on ECN systems only when the ``games
flag'' is raised and when the terminal is not needed for other
purposes. The games flag will be raised and lowered according
to system load and other machine specific policies.
b. Games which encourage excessive terminal wear or are disrup-
tive to other users of a terminal room will not be permitted.
c. Game playing is not generally permitted over dialup links or
other inter-machine communication links due to the inability
to insure that the games flag (or its equivalent) is raised on
the two or more systems involved.
d. System games are stored in /usr/games. These games will only
execute when the games flag is raised. Files may not be
copied from this directory.
e. Games not stored in the system games directory (/usr/games)
may be developed and executed only while the games flag is
raised. Executable games which are files must be designated
as a game by use of the command setgame filename.
or must monitor the games flag via calls to ganes(2) at five minute
intervals and proceed to play only if the games flag is raised. To
assist the user in determining if the games flag is raised, the
games command may be used.
Games source programs being developed when the games flag is
not raised are subject to removal without notice and the offending
user may lose ECN access authorization. Executable games files not
designated as a game via the setgame command and which do not prop-
erly use games(2) are subject to removal without notice and the
responsible user may lose ECN access authorization.
Losses of ECN access authorization and accounts being disabled
are always reported to the Site Specialist of the involved computer
system and to the ECN Manager of Network Services.
Subsequent report dispositions and actions vary for the
several Engineering Schools. Reports involving students are gen-
erally handled as follows: First report; filed with student's
records within his respective Engineering School. Second report;
same as first report with copies sent to his respective School's
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Academic Affairs Office and the Purdue Dean of Students Office.
Third report; same as second report with indefinite loss of ECN
access authorization.