--- name: "pam_setquota" section: "8" platform: "linux" package: "pam" version: "1.7.3-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/pam_setquota" --- # pam\_setquota(8) PAM module to set or modify disk quotas on session start ## NAME pam\_setquota - PAM module to set or modify disk quotas on session start ## SYNOPSIS **pam\_setquota.so** \[fs=*/home*\] \[overwrite=*0*\] \[debug=*0*\] \[startuid=*1000*\] \[enduid=*0*\] \[bsoftlimit=*19000*\] \[bhardlimit=*20000*\] \[isoftlimit=*3000*\] \[ihardlimit=*4000*\] ## DESCRIPTION pam\_setquota is a PAM module to set or modify a disk quota at session start This makes quotas usable with central user databases, such as MySQL or LDAP. ## OPTIONS fs=/home The device file or mountpoint the policy applies to. Defaults to the filesystem containing the users home directory. overwrite=0 Overwrite an existing quota. Note: Enabling this will remove the ability for the admin to manually configure different quotas for users for a filesystem with [**edquota**(8)](/edquota/8.md). (Defaults to 0) debug=0 Enable debugging. A value of 1 outputs the old and new quota on a device. A value of 2 also prints out the matched and found filesystems should **fs** be unset. (Defaults to 0) startuid=1000 Describe the start of the UID range the policy is applied to. (Defaults to UID\_MIN from login.defs or the uidmin value defined at compile-time if UID\_MIN is undefined.) enduid=0 Describe the end of the UID range the policy is applied to. Setting *enduid=0* results in an open-ended UID range (i.e. all uids greater than **startuid** are included). (Defaults to 0) bsoftlimit=19000 Soft limit for disk quota blocks, as defined by [**quotactl**(2)](/quotactl/2.md). Note: **bsoftlimit** and **bhardlimit** *must* be set at the same time! bhardlimit=20000 Hard limit for disk quota blocks, as defined by [**quotactl**(2)](/quotactl/2.md). Note: **bsoftlimit** and **bhardlimit** *must* be set at the same time! isoftlimit=3000 Soft limit for inodes, as defined by **quotactl**(2). Note: **isoftlimit** and **ihardlimit** *must* be set at the same time! ihardlimit=4000 Hard limit for inodes, as defined by **quotactl**(2). Note: **isoftlimit** and **ihardlimit** *must* be set at the same time! ## MODULE TYPES PROVIDED Only the **session** module type is provided. ## RETURN VALUES PAM\_SUCCESS The quota was set successfully. PAM\_IGNORE No action was taken because either the UID of the user was outside of the specified range, a quota already existed and **overwrite=1** was not configured or no limits were configured at all. PAM\_USER\_UNKNOWN The user was not found. PAM\_PERM\_DENIED /proc/mounts could not be opened. The filesystem or device specified was not found. The limits for the user could not be retrieved. See syslog for more information. The limits for the user could not be set. See syslog for more information. Either **isoftlimit**/**ihardlimit** or **bsoftlimit**/**bhardlimit** were not set at the same time. ## EXAMPLES A single invocation of \`pam\_setquota\` applies a specific policy to a UID range. Applying different policies to specific UID ranges is done by invoking pam\_setquota more than once. The last matching entry defines the resulting quota. ``` session required pam_setquota.so bsoftlimit=1000 bhardlimit=2000 isoftlimit=1000 ihardlimit=2000 startuid=1000 enduid=0 fs=/home session required pam_setquota.so bsoftlimit=19000 bhardlimit=20000 isoftlimit=3000 ihardlimit=4000 startuid=2001 enduid=3000 fs=/dev/sda1 session required pam_setquota.so bsoftlimit=19000 bhardlimit=20000 isoftlimit=3000 ihardlimit=4000 startuid=3001 enduid=4000 fs=/dev/sda1 overwrite=1 ``` ## SEE ALSO [**pam.conf**(5)](/pam.conf/5.md), [**pam.d**(5)](/pam.d/5.md), [**pam**(8)](/pam/8.md) ## AUTHOR pam\_setquota was originally written by Ruslan Savchenko \. Further modifications were made by Shane Tzen \, Sven Hartge \ and Keller Fuchs \.