A workspace is a directory, with an associated expiration date, created on behalf of a user, to prevent disks from uncontrolled filling. The project provides user and admin tools to manage those directories.
Example for usage:
In a batch job, you write
SCR=$(ws_allocate MyData 10)
cd $SCR
This will set you into a temporary directory that will last 10 days.
You can check which workspaces you have using
$ ws_list
id: MyData
workspace directory : /tmp/username-MyData
remaining time : 9 days 23 hours
creation time : Wed Mar 13 23:51:57 2013
expiration date : Sat Mar 23 23:51:57 2013
available extensions : 15
and you remove the directory if you do not need it anymore with
$ ws_release MyData
For the administrator, the workspace is a way to make sure users do not store their data forever on your fast storage, but have to stage it to slower and cheaper storage.
For admin guide see https://github.com/holgerBerger/hpc-workspace/blob/master/admin-guide.md
For user guide see https://github.com/holgerBerger/hpc-workspace/blob/master/user-guide.md