---
name: "quotaon"
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/quotaoff"
---

# quotaon(8)

turn file system quotas on and off

Part of [quotaoff(8)](/quotaoff/8.md).

## NAME

**quotaon**, **quotaoff** – turn file system quotas on and off

## SYNOPSIS

**quotaon** \[**-g**\] \[**-u**\] \[**-v**\] *filesystem* *...*

**quotaon** \[**-g**\] \[**-u**\] \[**-v**\] **-a**

**quotaoff** \[**-g**\] \[**-u**\] \[**-v**\] *filesystem* *...*

**quotaoff** \[**-g**\] \[**-u**\] \[**-v**\] **-a**

## DESCRIPTION

The **quotaon** utility announces to the system that disk quotas should be enabled on one or more file systems. The **quotaoff** utility announces to the system that the specified file systems should have any disk quotas turned off. The file systems specified must have entries in */etc/fstab* and be mounted. The **quotaon** utility expects each file system to have quota files named *quota.user* and *quota.group* which are located at the root of the associated file system. These defaults may be overridden in */etc/fstab*. By default both user and group quotas are enabled.

Available options:

- **-a**

  If supplied in place of any file system names, **quotaon**/**quotaoff** will enable/disable all the file systems indicated in */etc/fstab* to be read-write with disk quotas. By default only the types of quotas listed in */etc/fstab* are enabled.

- **-g**

  Only group quotas listed in */etc/fstab* should be enabled/disabled.

- **-u**

  Only user quotas listed in */etc/fstab* should be enabled/disabled.

- **-v**

  Cause **quotaon** and **quotaoff** to print a message for each file system where quotas are turned on or off.

Specifying both **-g** and **-u** is equivalent to the default.

## FILES

- *quota.user*

  at the file system root with user quotas

- *quota.group*

  at the file system root with group quotas

- */etc/fstab*

  file system table

## 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), [repquota(8)](/repquota/8.md)

## HISTORY

The **quotaon** utility appeared in 4.2BSD.