---
name: "setquota"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "quota-tools"
version: "1:4.11-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/setquota"
---

# setquota(8)

set disk quotas

## NAME

setquota - set disk quotas

## SYNOPSIS

**setquota** \[ **-rm** \] \[ **-u** \| **-g** \| **-P** \] \[ **-F** *quotaformat* \] *name* *block-softlimit* *block-hardlimit* *inode-softlimit* *inode-hardlimit* **-a** \| *filesystem...*

**setquota** \[ **-rm** \] \[ **-u** \| **-g** \| **-P** \] \[ **-F** *quotaformat* \] \[ **-p** *protoname* \] *name* **-a** \| *filesystem...*

**setquota** **-b** \[ **-rm** \] \[ **-u** \| **-g** \| **-P** \] \[ **-F** *quotaformat* \] **-a** \| *filesystem...*

**setquota** **-t** \[ **-u** \| **-g** \| **-P** \] \[ **-F** *quotaformat* \] *block-grace* *inode-grace* **-a** \| *filesystem...*

**setquota** **-T** \[ **-u** \| **-g** \| **-P** \] \[ **-F** *quotaformat* \] *name* *block-grace* *inode-grace* **-a** \| *filesystem...*

## DESCRIPTION

**setquota** is a command line quota editor. The filesystem, user/group/project name and new quotas for this filesystem can be specified on the command line. Note that if a number is given in the place of a user/group/project name it is treated as an UID/GID/project ID.

- **-r, --remote**

  Edit also remote quota use rpc.rquotad on remote server to set quota. This option is available only if quota tools were compiled with enabled support for setting quotas over RPC.

- **-m, --no-mixed-pathnames**

  Currently, pathnames of NFSv4 mountpoints are sent without leading slash in the path. **rpc.rquotad** uses this to recognize NFSv4 mounts and properly prepend pseudoroot of NFS filesystem to the path. If you specify this option, **setquota** will always send paths with a leading slash. This can be useful for legacy reasons but be aware that quota over RPC will stop working if you are using new **rpc.rquotad**.

- **-F, --format=*quotaformat***

  Perform setting for specified format (ie. don't perform format autodetection). Possible format names are: **vfsold** Original quota format with 16-bit UIDs / GIDs, **vfsv0** Quota format with 32-bit UIDs / GIDs, 64-bit space usage, 32-bit inode usage and limits, **vfsv1** Quota format with 64-bit quota limits and usage, **rpc** (quota over NFS), **xfs** (quota on XFS filesystem)

- **-u, --user**

  Set user quotas for named user. This is the default.

- **-g, --group**

  Set group quotas for named group.

- **-P, --project**

  Set project quotas for named project.

- **-p, --prototype=*protoname***

  Use quota settings of user, group or project *protoname* to set the quota for the named user, group or project.

- **--always-resolve**

  Always try to translate user / group / project name to uid / gid / project ID even if the name is composed of digits only.

- **-b, --batch**

  Read information to set from stdin (input format is *name block-softlimit block-hardlimit inode-softlimit inode-hardlimit* ). Empty lines and lines starting with # are ignored.

- **-c, --continue-batch**

  If parsing of an input line in batch mode fails, continue with processing the next line.

- **-t, --edit-period**

  Set grace times for users/groups/projects. Times **block-grace** and **inode-grace** are specified in seconds.

- **-T, --edit-times**

  Alter times for individual user/group/project when softlimit is enforced. Times **block-grace** and **inode-grace** are specified in seconds or can be string 'unset'.

- **-a, --all**

  Go through all filesystems with quota in **/etc/mtab** and perform setting.

*block-softlimit* and *block-hardlimit* are interpreted as multiples of kibibyte (1024 bytes) blocks by default. Symbols K, M, G, and T can be appended to numeric value to express kibibytes, mebibytes, gibibytes, and tebibytes.

*inode-softlimit* and *inode-hardlimit* are interpreted literally. Symbols k, m, g, and t can be appended to numeric value to express multiples of 10^3, 10^6, 10^9, and 10^12 inodes.

To disable a quota, set the corresponding parameter to 0. To change quotas for several filesystems, invoke once for each filesystem.

Only the super-user may edit quotas.

## FILES

- **aquota.user or aquota.group**

  quota file at the filesystem root (version 2 quota, non-XFS filesystems)

- **quota.user or quota.group**

  quota file at the filesystem root (version 1 quota, non-XFS filesystems)

- **/etc/mtab**

  mounted filesystem table

## SEE ALSO

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