quotacheck(8) manual page
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quotacheck - scan a filesystem for disk usage, create, check and repair
quota files
quotacheck [ -gubcfinvdMmR ] [ -F quota-format ] -a | filesystem
quotacheck examines each filesystem, builds a table of current
disk usage, and compares this table against that recorded in the disk quota
file for the filesystem (this step is omitted if option -c is specified).
If any inconsistencies are detected, both the quota file and the current
system copy of the incorrect quotas are updated (the latter only occurs
if an active filesystem is checked which is not advised). By default, only
user quotas are checked. quotacheck expects each filesystem to be checked
to have quota files named [a]quota.user and [a]quota.group located at the
root of the associated filesystem. If a file is not present, quotacheck
will create it.
If the quota file is corrupted, quotacheck tries to save
as much data as possible. Rescuing data may need user intervention. With
no additional options quotacheck will simply exit in such a situation. When
in interactive mode (option -i) , the user is asked for advice. Advice can
also be provided from command line (see option -n) , which is useful when
quotacheck is run automatically (ie. from script) and failure is unacceptable.
quotacheck should be run each time the system boots and mounts non-valid
filesystems. This is most likely to happen after a system crash.
It is strongly
recommended to run quotacheck with quotas turned off for the filesystem.
Otherwise, possible damage or loss to data in the quota files can result.
It is also unwise to run quotacheck on a live filesystem as actual usage
may change during the scan. To prevent this, quotacheck tries to remount
the filesystem read-only before starting the scan. After the scan is done
it remounts the filesystem read-write. You can disable this with option -m.
You can also make quotacheck ignore the failure to remount the filesystem
read-only with option -M.
- -b, --backup
- Forces quotacheck to make backups
of the quota file before writing the new data.
- -v, --verbose
- quotacheck reports
its operation as it progresses. Normally it operates silently. If the option
is specified twice, also the current directory is printed (note that printing
can slow down the scan measurably).
- -d, --debug
- Enable debugging mode. It will
result in a lot of information which can be used in debugging the program.
The output is very verbose and the scan will be slow.
- -u, --user
- Only user
quotas listed in /etc/mtab or on the filesystems specified are to be checked.
This is the default action.
- -g, --group
- Only group quotas listed in /etc/mtab
or on the filesystems specified are to be checked.
- -c, --create-files
- Don’t read
existing quota files. Just perform a new scan and save it to disk. quotacheck
also skips scanning of old quota files when they are not found.
- -f, --force
- Forces checking and writing of new quota files on filesystems with quotas
enabled. This is not recommended as the created quota files may be out of
sync.
- -M, --try-remount
- This flag forces checking of filesystem in read-write
mode if a remount fails. Do this only when you are sure no process will
write to a filesystem while scanning.
- -m, --no-remount
- Don’t try to remount filesystem
read-only. See comment with option -M.
- -i, --interactive
- Interactive mode. By default
quotacheck exits when it finds an error. In interactive mode user is asked
for input instead. See option -n.
- -n, --use-first-dquot
- If the quota files become
corrupted, it is possible for duplicate entries for a single user or group
ID to exist. Normally in this case, quotacheck exits or asks user for input.
When this option is set, the first entry found is always used (this option
works in interactive mode too).
- -F, --format=format-name
- Check and fix quota
files of specified format (ie. don’t perform format auto-detection). This is
recommended as detection might not work well on corrupted quota files.
Possible format names are: vfsold Original quota format with 16-bit UIDs
/ GIDs, vfsv0 Quota format with 32-bit UIDs / GIDs, 64-bit space usage, 32-bit
inode usage and limits, vfsv1 Quota format with 64-bit quota limits and
usage, rpc (quota over NFS), xfs (quota on XFS filesystem)
- -a, --all
- Check
all mounted non-NFS filesystems in /etc/mtab
- -R, --exclude-root
- When used together
with the -a option, all filesystems except for the root filesystem are checked
for quotas.
quotacheck should only be run by super-user. Non-privileged
users are presumably not allowed to read all the directories on the given
filesystem.
quota(1)
, quotactl(2)
, fstab(5)
, quotaon(8)
, repquota(8)
,
convertquota(8)
, setquota(8)
, edquota(8)
, fsck(8)
, efsck(8)
, e2fsck(8)
,
xfsck(8)
- aquota.user or aquota.group
- located at filesystem root with
quotas (version 2 quota, non-XFS filesystems)
- quota.user or quota.group
- located
at filesystem root with quotas (version 1 quota, non-XFS filesystems)
- /etc/mtab
- names and locations of mounted filesystems
Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Based on old quotacheck by:
Edvard Tuinder <ed@elm.net>
Marco van Wieringen <mvw@planets.elm.net>
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