---
name: "edquota"
section: "8"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/edquota"
---

# edquota(8)

edit user quotas

## 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)](/vi/1.md) 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)](/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)