---
name: "quota.user"
section: "5"
platform: "freebsd"
package: "base"
version: "16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79"
release: "FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27)"
platforms: ["freebsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/quota.group"
---

# quota.user(5)

per file system quota database

Part of [quota.group(5)](/quota.group/5.md).

## NAME

**quota.user**, **quota.group** – per file system quota database

## DESCRIPTION

Each file system with active quotas should contain a *quota.user* and *quota.group* file in the file system root. These files are created by [quotacheck(8)](/quotacheck/8.md), and should be edited with [edquota(8)](/edquota/8.md). It is possible to specify a different location and file name with the “userquota” and “groupquota” options in the [fstab(5)](/fstab/5.md) file.

The data files contain the following information:

- Current block usage

- Current number of files

- Soft block limit

- Soft file limit

- Hard block limit

- Hard file limit

- Block grace time remaining if over the soft limit

- File grace time remaining if over the soft limit

See [edquota(8)](/edquota/8.md) for an explanation on the various limits and grace periods.

During normal quota operations the [quotactl(2)](/quotactl/2.md) interface is used to query or set quota information and the kernel will maintain the data files as needed. If quotas are disabled on a file system, but marked as having quotas enabled in [fstab(5)](/fstab/5.md), then the quota data files will be used directly.

The data files are stored as an array of “struct dqblk” structures, as defined in ⟨ufs/ufs/quota.h⟩, and indexed by UID or GID. The data files will be written as a sparse file if possible. Data is only maintained for ids that have either non-zero usage or non-zero quota limits. If an attempt is made to access data for an id that would exist past the end of the current data file, a quota structure with all values set to zero will be created, and the data file extended as needed. The [quotacheck(8)](/quotacheck/8.md) utility will truncate the data files to the minimum size needed to store the highest id with either non-zero file usage or non-zero quota limits.

The data record for id 0 has special meaning. If the “dqb\_btime” or “dbq\_itime” fields are non-zero, they are used to indicate the grace period on that file system for users who have exceeded their soft limit. These times can be set by [edquota(8)](/edquota/8.md) with the **-t** flag. If no explicit grace period has been set with [edquota(8)](/edquota/8.md), then the default value of 7 days will be used. The default values are defined by MAX\_DQ\_TIME and MAX\_IQ\_TIME in ⟨ufs/ufs/quota.h⟩.

## SEE ALSO

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