1quotacheck(8)               System Manager's Manual              quotacheck(8)
2
3
4

NAME

6       quotacheck - scan a filesystem for disk usage, create, check and repair
7       quota files
8

SYNOPSIS

10       quotacheck [ -gubcfinvdMmR ] [ -F quota-format ] -a | filesystem
11

DESCRIPTION

13       quotacheck examines each filesystem, builds a  table  of  current  disk
14       usage,  and compares this table against that recorded in the disk quota
15       file for the filesystem (this step is ommitted if option -c  is  speci‐
16       fied). If any inconsistencies are detected, both the quota file and the
17       current system copy of the incorrect quotas  are  updated  (the  latter
18       only  occurs  if an active filesystem is checked which is not advised).
19       By default, only user quotas  are  checked.   quotacheck  expects  each
20       filesystem  to  be  checked to have quota files named [a]quota.user and
21       [a]quota.group located at the root of the associated filesystem.  If  a
22       file is not present, quotacheck will create it.
23
24       If  the  quota file is corrupted, quotacheck tries to save as much data
25       as possible.  Rescuing data may need user intervention. With  no  addi‐
26       tional options quotacheck will simply exit in such a situation. When in
27       interactive mode (option -i) , the user is asked for advice. Advice can
28       also  be  provided  from command line (see option -n) , which is useful
29       when quotacheck is run automatically (ie. from script) and  failure  is
30       unacceptable.
31
32       quotacheck  should  be  run  each time the system boots and mounts non-
33       valid filesystems.  This is most likely to happen after a system crash.
34
35       It is strongly recommended to run quotacheck with quotas turned off for
36       the filesystem. Otherwise, possible damage or loss to data in the quota
37       files can result.  It is also  unwise  to  run  quotacheck  on  a  live
38       filesystem  as  actual  usage  may  change during the scan.  To prevent
39       this, quotacheck tries  to  remount  the  filesystem  read-only  before
40       starting  the  scan.  After the scan is done it remounts the filesystem
41       read-write. You can disable this with option -m.   You  can  also  make
42       quotacheck  ignore the failure to remount the filesystem read-only with
43       option -M.
44

OPTIONS

46       -b, --backup
47              Forces quotacheck to make backups of the quota file before writ‐
48              ing the new data.
49
50       -v, --verbose
51              quotacheck  reports its operation as it progresses.  Normally it
52              operates silently.  If the option is specified twice,  also  the
53              current  directory  is printed (note that printing can slow down
54              the scan measurably).
55
56       -d, --debug
57              Enable debugging mode.  It will result in a lot  of  information
58              which  can  be used in debugging the program. The output is very
59              verbose and the scan will be slow.
60
61       -u, --user
62              Only user quotas listed in /etc/mtab or on the filesystems spec‐
63              ified are to be checked.  This is the default action.
64
65       -g, --group
66              Only  group  quotas  listed  in  /etc/mtab or on the filesystems
67              specified are to be checked.
68
69       -c, --create-files
70              Don't read existing quota files. Just perform  a  new  scan  and
71              save  it  to  disk.  quotacheck also skips scanning of old quota
72              files when they are not found.
73
74       -f, --force
75              Forces checking and writing of new quota  files  on  filesystems
76              with  quotas  enabled.  This  is  not recommended as the created
77              quota files may be out of sync.
78
79       -M, --try-remount
80              This flag forces checking of filesystem in read-write mode if  a
81              remount  fails.  Do  this only when you are sure no process will
82              write to a filesystem while scanning.
83
84       -m, --no-remount
85              Don't try to remount  filesystem  read-only.  See  comment  with
86              option -M.
87
88       -i, --interactive
89              Interactive  mode.  By default quotacheck exits when it finds an
90              error. In interactive mode user is asked for input instead.  See
91              option -n.
92
93       -n, --use-first-dquot
94              If  the  quota files become corrupted, it is possible for dupli‐
95              cate entries for a single user or group ID to  exist.   Normally
96              in this case, quotacheck exits or asks user for input. When this
97              option is set, the first entry found is always used (this option
98              works in interactive mode too).
99
100       -F, --format=format-name
101              Check and fix quota files of specified format (ie. don't perform
102              format auto-detection). This is recommended as  detection  might
103              not  work  well on corrupted quota files.  Possible format names
104              are: vfsold Original quota format with 16-bit UIDs / GIDs, vfsv0
105              Quota format with 32-bit UIDs / GIDs, 64-bit space usage, 32-bit
106              inode usage and limits, vfsv1 Quota  format  with  64-bit  quota
107              limits  and  usage,  rpc  (quota  over  NFS),  xfs (quota on XFS
108              filesystem)
109
110       -a, --all
111              Check all mounted non-NFS filesystems in /etc/mtab
112
113       -R, --exclude-root
114              When used together with the -a option,  all  filesystems  except
115              for the root filesystem are checked for quotas.
116
117

NOTE

119       quotacheck  should  only be run by super-user. Non-privileged users are
120       presumably not allowed  to  read  all  the  directories  on  the  given
121       filesystem.
122
123

SEE ALSO

125       quota(1),   quotactl(2),   fstab(5),   quotaon(8),   repquota(8),  con‐
126       vertquota(8), setquota(8), edquota(8),  fsck(8),  efsck(8),  e2fsck(8),
127       xfsck(8)
128
129

FILES

131       aquota.user or aquota.group
132                      located at filesystem root with quotas (version 2 quota,
133                      non-XFS filesystems)
134       quota.user or quota.group
135                      located at filesystem root with quotas (version 1 quota,
136                      non-XFS filesystems)
137       /etc/mtab      names and locations of mounted filesystems

AUTHOR

139       Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
140       Based on old quotacheck by:
141       Edvard Tuinder <ed@elm.net>
142       Marco van Wieringen <mvw@planets.elm.net>
143
144
145
146                                Fri Jul 20 2001                  quotacheck(8)
Impressum