Quota mini-HOWTO

This document describes how to enable file system quota on a Linux host, assigning quota for users and groups, as well as the usage of miscellaneous quota commands. It is intended for users running kernel 2.x (Also tested on kernel 2.4.21).

1. What is quota?

• 1.1 What is quota for?
• 1.2 Current Status of Quota on Linux

2. Requirements for quota

• 2.1 Kernel
• 2.2 Quota software

3. Quota setup: installation and configuration

• 3.1 Patch the kernel
• 3.2 Reconfigure your kernel
• 3.3 Compile and install the quota softwares
• 3.4 Modify your system init script to check quota and turn quota on at boot
• 3.5 Modify /etc/fstab
• 3.6 Activate the quota system
• 3.7 Add quotacheck to crontab

4. Quota setup: tools

• 4.1 Assigning quota for a particular user
• 4.2 Assigning quota for a particular group
• 4.3 Assigning quota for a bunch of users with the same value
• 4.4 Soft Limit
• 4.5 Hard Limit
• 4.6 Grace Period

5. Miscellaneous Quota Commands

• 5.1 Quotacheck
• 5.2 Repquota
• 5.3 Quotaon and Quotaoff