---
name: "quotacheck"
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/quotacheck"
---

# quotacheck(8)

filesystem quota consistency checker

## NAME

**quotacheck** – filesystem quota consistency checker

## SYNOPSIS

**quotacheck** \[**-adguv**\] \[**-l** *maxparallel*\] *filesystem* *...*

## DESCRIPTION

**quotacheck** examines each filesystem, builds a table of current disk usage, and compares this table against that recorded in the disk quota file for the filesystem. If any inconsistencies are detected, both the quota file and the current system copy of the incorrect quotas are updated (the latter only occurs if an active filesystem is checked). By default, both user and group quotas are checked.

Available options:

- **-a**

  If the **-a** flag is supplied in place of any filesystem names, **quotacheck** will check all the filesystems indicated in */etc/fstab* to be read-write with disk quotas. By default, only the types of quotas listed in */etc/fstab* are checked.

- **-d**

  Enable debugging mode. No actual data will be written on disk(s).

- **-g**

  Only group quotas listed in */etc/fstab* are to be checked.

- **-l** *maxparallel*

  Limit the number of parallel checks to the number *maxparallel* specified in the argument (see [fsck(8)](/fsck/8.md)).

- **-u**

  Only user quotas listed in */etc/fstab* are to be checked.

- **-v**

  **quotacheck** reports discrepancies between the calculated and recorded disk quotas.

Specifying both **-g** and **-u** is equivalent to the default. Parallel passes are run on the filesystems required, using the pass numbers in */etc/fstab* in an identical fashion to [fsck(8)](/fsck/8.md).

Normally **quotacheck** operates silently.

**quotacheck** expects each filesystem to be checked to have quota files named *quota.user* and *quota.group* located at the root of the associated file system. These defaults may be overridden in */etc/fstab*. If a file is not present, **quotacheck** will create it.

**quotacheck** is normally run at boot time from the */etc/rc* file (see [rc(8)](/rc/8.md)) before enabling disk quotas with [quotaon(8)](/quotaon/8.md).

**quotacheck** accesses the raw device in calculating the actual disk usage for each user. Thus, the filesystems checked should be quiescent while **quotacheck** is running.

## FILES

- *quota.user*

  at the filesystem root with user quotas

- *quota.group*

  at the filesystem root with group quotas

- */etc/fstab*

  default filesystems

## SEE ALSO

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

## HISTORY

The **quotacheck** command appeared in 4.2BSD.