---
name: "edquota"
section: "8"
platform: "freebsd"
package: "base"
version: "16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79"
release: "FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/edquota"
---

# edquota(8)

edit user quotas

## NAME

**edquota** – edit user quotas

## SYNOPSIS

**edquota** \[**-uh**\] \[**-f** *fspath*\] \[**-p** *proto-username*\] *username* *...*

**edquota** \[**-u**\] **-e** *fspath*\[:*bslim*\[:*bhlim*\[:*islim*\[:*ihlim*\]\]\]\] \[**-e** *...*\] *username* *...*

**edquota** **-g** \[**-h**\] \[**-f** *fspath*\] \[**-p** *proto-groupname*\] *groupname* *...*

**edquota** **-g** **-e** *fspath*\[:*bslim*\[:*bhlim*\[:*islim*\[:*ihlim*\]\]\]\] \[**-e** *...*\] *groupname* *...*

**edquota** **-t** \[**-u**\] \[**-f** *fspath*\]

**edquota** **-t** **-g** \[**-f** *fspath*\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **edquota** utility is a quota editor. By default, or if the **-u** flag is specified, one or more users may be specified on the command line. For each user a temporary file is created with an ASCII representation of the current disk quotas for that user. The list of file systems with user quotas is determined from */etc/fstab*. An editor is invoked on the ASCII file. The editor invoked is [vi(1)](/vi/1.md) unless the environment variable EDITOR specifies otherwise.

The quotas may then be modified, new quotas added, etc. Block quotas can be specified in bytes (B), kilobytes (K), megabytes (M), terabytes (T), petabytes (P), or exabytes (E). If no units are specified, kilobytes are assumed. Inode quotas can be specified in kiloinodes (K), megainodes (M), terainodes (T), petainodes (P), or exainodes (E). If no units are specified, the number of inodes specified are used. If the **-h** flag is specified, the editor will always display the block usage and limits in a more human readable format rather than displaying them in the historic kilobyte format. 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 only on 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** option 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 user given to assign quotas to is a numerical uid range (e.g. 1000-2000), then **edquota** will duplicate the quotas of the prototypical user for each uid in the range specified. This allows for easy setup of default quotas for a group of users. The uids in question do not have to be currently assigned in */etc/passwd*.

If one or more **-e** *fspath*\[:*bslim*\[:*bhlim*\[:*islim*\[:*ihlim*\]\]\]\] options are specified, **edquota** will non-interactively set quotas defined by *bslim*, *bhlim*, *islim*, and *ihlim* on each particular file system referenced by *fspath*. Here *bslim* is the soft limit on the number of blocks, *bhlim* is the hard limit on the number of blocks, *islim* is the soft limit on the number of files, and *ihlim* is the hard limit on the number of files. If any of the *bslim*, *bhlim*, *islim*, and *ihlim* values is omitted, it is assumed to be zero, therefore indicating that no particular quota should be imposed. Block quotas can be specified in bytes (B), kilobytes (K), megabytes (M), terabytes (T), petabytes (P), or exabytes (E). If no units are specified, kilobytes are assumed. Inode quotas can be specified in kiloinodes (K), megainodes (M), terainodes (T), petainodes (P), or exainodes (E). If no units are specified, the number of inodes specified are used.

If invoked with the **-f** option, **edquota** will read and modify quotas on the file system specified by *fspath* only. The *fspath* argument may be either a special device or a file system mount point. The primary purpose of this option is to set the scope for the **-p** option, which would overwrite quota records on every file system with quotas otherwise.

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. Similarly, **-e** flag can be specified in conjunction with the **-g** flag to non-interactively set-up quotas on the listed set of groups.

Users are permitted to exceed their soft limits for a grace period that may be specified per file system. Once the grace period has expired, the soft limit is enforced as a hard limit. The default grace period for a file system is specified in ⟨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 file systems with user quotas specified in */etc/fstab*. When invoked with the **-g** flag the grace period is set for all the file systems 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. Quotas must be turned off for the file system and then turned back on for the new grace period to take effect.

Only the super-user may edit quotas.

## FILES

- *quota.user*

  at the file system root with user quotas

- *quota.group*

  at the file system root with group quotas

- */etc/fstab*

  to find file system names and locations

## DIAGNOSTICS

Various messages about inaccessible files; self-explanatory.

## SEE ALSO

[quota(1)](/quota/1.md), [quotactl(2)](/quotactl/2.md), [fstab(5)](/fstab/5.md), [quotacheck(8)](/quotacheck/8.md), [quotaon(8)](/quotaon/8.md), [repquota(8)](/repquota/8.md)