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

# quotaon(8)

turn filesystem quotas on and off

## NAME

**quotaon**, **quotaoff** – turn filesystem quotas on and off

## SYNOPSIS

**quotaon** \[**-aguv**\] *filesystem* *...*

**quotaoff** \[**-aguv**\] *filesystem* *...*

## DESCRIPTION

**quotaon** announces to the system that disk quotas should be enabled on one or more filesystems. **quotaoff** announces to the system that the specified filesystems should have any disk quotas turned off. The filesystems specified must have entries in */etc/fstab* and be mounted. **quotaon** expects each filesystem 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.

The options are as follows:

- **-a**

  If the **-a** flag is supplied in place of any filesystem names, **quotaon**/**quotaoff** will enable/disable 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 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**

  Causes **quotaon** and **quotaoff** to print a message for each filesystem where quotas are turned on or off.

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

## FILES

- *quota.user*

  at the filesystem root with user quotas

- *quota.group*

  at the filesystem root with group quotas

- */etc/fstab*

  filesystem 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** and **quotaoff** commands appeared in 4.2BSD.