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What a disk quota controls
A disk quota limits how much of a particular filesystem an account can consume. You can control two independent resources:
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- Blocks: the amount of filesystem space allocated to the user.
- Inodes: the number of files and directories the user can create.
For a home directory on /home, a quota applies to that filesystem, not automatically to every path that happens to contain a user’s name. If /home is a separate mount, configure and inspect /home. If users’ home directories are on the root filesystem, configure the root mount instead.
Quotas are useful on shared Ubuntu machines, game servers with multiple Linux accounts, classroom systems, and any host where one account filling a filesystem would disrupt everyone else. They are not a backup system and do not prevent a user from consuming space on another filesystem that has no quota.
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Decide which quota implementation you have
Check the filesystem and mount point before editing configuration:
findmnt -no FSTYPE,TARGETThe result identifies both the filesystem type and the mounted path. The setup path depends on that result.
| Filesystem situation | Where quota data lives | How quotas are activated |
|---|---|---|
| ext4 and other non-XFS filesystems using version-2 user quotas | Quota files at the filesystem root, normally aquota.user |
Add a user-quota mount option, remount, run quotacheck, then run quotaon |
| XFS | Quota information is filesystem metadata maintained internally by XFS | Enable user accounting and limit enforcement through the XFS mount option; do not use quotaon to turn it on |
Ubuntu’s quotaon documentation describes XFS as a special case: journaling stores quota information as filesystem metadata, providing a higher consistency guarantee. The same documentation lists aquota.user for version-2 user quotas, quota.user for version-1 user quotas, and corresponding group files.
Install the quota utilities
Install Ubuntu’s quota package on the machine where you will configure and administer the limits:
sudo apt install quotaThe package supplies commands such as quotacheck, quotaon, setquota, quota, and repquota. Run administrative commands with sudo; reading an individual user’s report may also require elevated privileges depending on the account and system policy.
Set up quotas on ext4 or another non-XFS filesystem
The following procedure assumes a mounted filesystem such as /home. Replace that path with the target shown by findmnt. If the target is /, use / in each command instead.
1. Add a user-quota option to /etc/fstab
Open the filesystem table:
sudoedit /etc/fstabFind the entry for the filesystem that contains the users’ data. Add a user-quota option to its existing comma-separated mount options. For example:
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UUID=... /home ext4 defaults,usrquota 0 2Keep the existing options unless you have a specific reason to change them. The important addition for per-user limits is usrquota. A group quota uses a separate group-quota option; do not add one unless group accounting is part of your policy.
Check the line carefully before saving. A typo in /etc/fstab can prevent a mount from being restored at boot. The option must be on the entry for the filesystem you intend to police; adding it to an unrelated mount does not affect /home.
2. Remount the filesystem
Apply the changed mount options without rebooting:
sudo mount -o remount /homeFor a root-filesystem target, remount / instead. Then confirm that the active mount reflects the intended filesystem and options:
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchfindmnt -no FSTYPE,TARGET,OPTIONS /homeIf the remount reports an error, stop here and correct the /etc/fstab entry or use the exact mount target reported by findmnt. Do not initialize quota data on a different filesystem by mistake.
3. Create or refresh user quota data
Run quotacheck against the mounted filesystem:
sudo quotacheck -cum /homeThe command asks quotacheck to create or check user-quota data while scanning the mounted filesystem. Use the options supported by the quota package installed on your Ubuntu release. A scan reads filesystem state; avoid running it while the filesystem is undergoing heavy writes, because active changes can make the accounting snapshot less reliable. Schedule the initial scan during a quiet maintenance window when practical.
On a version-2 non-XFS filesystem, the resulting user quota file is normally /home/aquota.user (the file is at the root of whichever filesystem you selected). Do not create this file manually on XFS.
4. Enable user quotas
Turn on enforcement and display the result verbosely:
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sudo quotaon -v /homeUbuntu’s manual defines quotaon as announcing to the system that disk quotas should be enabled on one or more filesystems. The command must find the quota data for the selected mount. If it cannot, return to the mount-option and quotacheck steps rather than assigning limits to an unprepared filesystem.
5. Assign a user’s limits
Use setquota to set the block and inode limits for an account. The general order is:
sudo setquota -u USER BLOCK-SOFT BLOCK-HARD INODE-SOFT INODE-HARD FILESYSTEMFor example, the following applies the supplied policy values to user alice on /home:
sudo setquota -u alice 1048576 1258291 0 0 /homeIn this command, 1048576 is the block soft limit, 1258291 is the block hard limit, and both inode limits are zero. The values are quota block values interpreted by the installed quota tools; choose values using the units documented on that Ubuntu system rather than assuming that a number is a raw byte count. A zero inode limit means no inode limit is being assigned in this example.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThe soft limit is a warning threshold that can be subject to a grace period. The hard limit is the ceiling: once it is reached, further allocations can be rejected. Set a hard limit above the soft limit when you want users to have time to clean up or request more space. If you need an immediate ceiling with no separate warning threshold, use the same block value for both fields, while still checking the behavior documented for your quota implementation.
6. Check the result for that user
sudo quota -u aliceUbuntu’s quota command displays users’ disk usage and limits. The report lets you confirm that the account is associated with the expected filesystem and that the configured block and inode fields are present.
Understand soft limits, hard limits, and grace periods
| Setting | Purpose | Typical administrative decision |
|---|---|---|
| Block soft limit | Warns or places the account into a grace-period state after the preferred space target is exceeded | Set it at the normal allocation you want the user to maintain |
| Block hard limit | Prevents additional block allocation after the ceiling is reached | Set it high enough for a short-term burst, but low enough to protect the filesystem |
| Inode soft limit | Warns or applies grace behavior after a file-count target is exceeded | Use it when many small files are a risk, even if total bytes are modest |
| Inode hard limit | Stops creation of additional files or directories at the ceiling | Use it to protect systems from file-count exhaustion |
Space and file count are separate resources. A user can remain below a block limit while exhausting inodes with a very large number of tiny files, or consume most of the available blocks with a small number of large files. Decide whether your policy needs one resource or both, and record the chosen values so later changes are deliberate.
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Apply limits to more than one account
Run setquota once for each user whose policy differs. The command’s user, group, or project name and the new quotas are supplied on the command line; the exact selector and supported scope depend on the quota implementation and installed tools. The research-supported workflow is per-user with setquota -u. If you need group or project quotas, verify the filesystem support and the option syntax in the local setquota manual before enabling them.
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XFS: use mount-time accounting instead
XFS does not use the external quota-file workflow described above. Its quota information is filesystem metadata, and XFS uses journaling for consistency. Ubuntu’s documentation states that enabling XFS quotas requires mount(8) or an /etc/fstab quota option that enables both accounting and limit enforcement; quotaon cannot be used for this purpose.
Configure the XFS mount
Identify the XFS entry in /etc/fstab and add the XFS user-quota mount option documented for your Ubuntu release and mount tools (commonly expressed as an XFS user-quota option such as uquota or usrquota). Remount or reboot as required by the host, then verify the active mount with findmnt. The key requirement is that accounting and enforcement are active at mount time.
Set and report XFS limits
After accounting is active, use the XFS quota tooling and the documented XFS quota format for assigning and reporting limits. Do not run quotacheck to create an aquota.user file for XFS, and do not expect quotaon to activate XFS limits. Consult the xfs_quota documentation installed on the machine for the exact command syntax supported by that Ubuntu release.
Verify activation and audit all users
Check whether quotas are enabled on a particular mount:
sudo quotaon -p /homeFor a broader administrator-oriented status check, use:
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sudo quotaon -avTo produce a report across a filesystem:
sudo repquota -u /homerepquota is useful after initial setup and during routine administration because it shows usage and limits for users on the selected filesystem. Compare the report with your intended policy and investigate accounts approaching either the block or inode threshold.
Troubleshoot common failures
“Filesystem is not quota-enabled” from quotacheck
- Run
findmnt -no FSTYPE,TARGET,OPTIONS /homeand confirm you are checking the mounted filesystem that contains the data. - Inspect the active
/etc/fstabentry and verify that the user-quota option is present on that entry. - Remount the filesystem, then run
findmntagain to confirm the option is active. - Check the filesystem type. XFS requires mount-time accounting and should not be prepared with external
aquota.userfiles.
quotaon cannot find quota files
On non-XFS filesystems, verify that quotacheck completed against the correct mount and that the expected quota file is at that filesystem’s root. Version-2 user quotas use aquota.user; version-1 installations use quota.user. A quota file on another mount is irrelevant.
The limit appears configured but writes continue
Check activation with quotaon -p or quotaon -av, then inspect the account with quota -u USER. Confirm that the command used the intended filesystem path and that the hard limit, not only a soft limit, is set. For XFS, verify the mount-time accounting and enforcement option and use the XFS quota tools rather than quotaon.
Usage reports look inconsistent after a busy period
A quota scan performed while files are changing can observe a moving filesystem state. Repeat the check during a quiet period using the options supported by the installed quota package, and then re-enable or refresh quotas as appropriate for the implementation. Avoid treating a scan taken during heavy writes as a definitive baseline.
The remount fails or the host will not boot after an /etc/fstab edit
Recheck the filesystem identifier, mount point, filesystem type, and comma-separated options. If the system has entered a recovery shell, correct the faulty line before attempting a normal boot. Once the filesystem is mounted normally, use findmnt to verify the live configuration before running quota utilities.
A maintainable quota policy
- Document which mount contains each user’s data; quotas are scoped to filesystems.
- Choose block limits for total space and inode limits for file-count protection rather than assuming one substitutes for the other.
- Set a soft limit for the normal target and a hard limit for the maximum acceptable burst, unless your policy requires an immediate ceiling.
- After changes, verify one account with
quota -uand the whole filesystem withrepquota. - Check activation after reboots or mount changes with
quotaon -por the appropriate XFS reporting tool. - For XFS, keep all configuration in the mount options and XFS quota tooling; never mix it with the non-XFS external-file workflow.
Following those boundaries prevents the most common setup error: running correct commands against the wrong filesystem or applying non-XFS instructions to XFS.
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