EDQUOTA(8) | System Manager's Manual | EDQUOTA(8)

# NAME

`edquota` — edit user quotas

# SYNOPSIS

`edquota` | [`-u`] [`-p` proto-username] username | uid ...

`edquota` | `-g` [`-p` proto-groupname] groupname | gid ...

`edquota` | `-t` [`-u`]

`edquota` | `-g` `-t`

# DESCRIPTION

`edquota` is a quota editor. By default, or if the `-u` flag is specified, one or more users may be specified on the command line. If a numeric ID is given instead of a name, that UID/GID will be used even if there is not a corresponding ID in the /etc/passwd or /etc/group files. For each user a temporary file is created with an ASCII representation of the current disk quotas for that user. The list of filesystems with user quotas is determined from /etc/fstab. An editor is invoked on the ASCII file. The editor invoked is vi(1) unless the environment variable `EDITOR` specifies otherwise.

The quotas may then be modified, new quotas added, etc. Setting a quota to zero indicates that no quota should be imposed. Setting a hard limit to one indicates that no allocations should be permitted. Setting a soft limit to one with a hard limit of zero indicates that allocations should be permitted on only a temporary basis (see `-t` below). The current usage information in the file is for informational purposes; only the hard and soft limits can be changed.

On leaving the editor, `edquota` reads the temporary file and modifies the binary quota files to reflect the changes made.

If the `-p` flag is specified, `edquota` will duplicate the quotas of the prototypical user specified for each user specified. This is the normal mechanism used to initialize quotas for groups of users.

If the `-g` flag is specified, `edquota` is invoked to edit the quotas of one or more groups specified on the command line. The `-p` flag can be specified in conjunction with the `-g` flag to specify a prototypical group to be duplicated among the listed set of groups.

Users are permitted to exceed their soft limits for a grace period that may be specified per filesystem. Once the grace period has expired, the soft limit is enforced as a hard limit. The default grace period for a filesystem is specified in /usr/include/ufs/ufs/quota.h. The `-t` flag can be used to change the grace period. By default, or when invoked with the `-u` flag, the grace period is set for all the filesystems with user quotas specified in /etc/fstab. When invoked with the `-g` flag, the grace period is set for all the filesystems with group quotas specified in /etc/fstab. The grace period may be specified in days, hours, minutes, or seconds. Setting a grace period to zero indicates that the default grace period should be imposed. Setting a grace period to one second indicates that no grace period should be granted.

Only the superuser may edit quotas.

# FILES

quota.user
  at the filesystem root with user quotas
quota.group
  at the filesystem root with group quotas
/etc/fstab
  to find filesystem names and locations

# SEE ALSO

quota(1), quotactl(2), fstab(5), quotacheck(8), quotaon(8), repquota(8)

March 31, 2022 | Debian