quotacheck(8) System Manager's Manual quotacheck(8)
NAME
quotacheck - scan a filesystem for disk usage, create, check and repair
quota files
SYNOPSIS
quotacheck [ -gubcfinvdMmR ] [ -F quota-format ] -a | filesystem
DESCRIPTION
quotacheck examines each filesystem, builds a table of current disk us-
age, and compares this table against that recorded in the disk quota
file for the filesystem (this step is omitted if option -c is speci-
fied). 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 which is not advised).
By default, only user quotas are checked. quotacheck expects each
filesystem to be checked to have quota files named [a]quota.user and
[a]quota.group located at the root of the associated filesystem. If a
file is not present, quotacheck will create it.
If the quota file is corrupted, quotacheck tries to save as much data
as possible. Rescuing data may need user intervention. With no addi-
tional options quotacheck will simply exit in such a situation. When in
interactive mode (option -i) , the user is asked for advice. Advice can
also be provided from command line (see option -n) , which is useful
when quotacheck is run automatically (ie. from script) and failure is
unacceptable.
quotacheck should be run each time the system boots and mounts non-
valid filesystems. This is most likely to happen after a system crash.
It is strongly recommended to run quotacheck with quotas turned off for
the filesystem. Otherwise, possible damage or loss to data in the quota
files can result. It is also unwise to run quotacheck on a live
filesystem as actual usage may change during the scan. To prevent
this, quotacheck tries to remount the filesystem read-only before
starting the scan. After the scan is done it remounts the filesystem
read-write. You can disable this with option -m. You can also make
quotacheck ignore the failure to remount the filesystem read-only with
option -M.
OPTIONS
-b, --backup
Forces quotacheck to make backups of the quota file before writ-
ing the new data.
-v, --verbose
quotacheck reports its operation as it progresses. Normally it
operates silently. If the option is specified twice, also the
current directory is printed (note that printing can slow down
the scan measurably).
-d, --debug
Enable debugging mode. It will result in a lot of information
which can be used in debugging the program. The output is very
verbose and the scan will be slow.
-u, --user
Only user quotas listed in /etc/mtab or on the filesystems spec-
ified are to be checked. This is the default action.
-g, --group
Only group quotas listed in /etc/mtab or on the filesystems
specified are to be checked.
-c, --create-files
Don't read existing quota files. Just perform a new scan and
save it to disk. quotacheck also skips scanning of old quota
files when they are not found.
-f, --force
Forces checking and writing of new quota files on filesystems
with quotas enabled. This is not recommended as the created
quota files may be out of sync.
-M, --try-remount
This flag forces checking of filesystem in read-write mode if a
remount fails. Do this only when you are sure no process will
write to a filesystem while scanning.
-m, --no-remount
Don't try to remount filesystem read-only. See comment with op-
tion -M.
-i, --interactive
Interactive mode. By default quotacheck exits when it finds an
error. In interactive mode user is asked for input instead. See
option -n.
-n, --use-first-dquot
If the quota files become corrupted, it is possible for dupli-
cate entries for a single user or group ID to exist. Normally
in this case, quotacheck exits or asks user for input. When this
option is set, the first entry found is always used (this option
works in interactive mode too).
-F, --format=format-name
Check and fix quota files of specified format (ie. don't perform
format auto-detection). This is recommended as detection might
not work well on corrupted quota files. 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)
-a, --all
Check all mounted non-NFS filesystems in /etc/mtab
-R, --exclude-root
When used together with the -a option, all filesystems except
for the root filesystem are checked for quotas.
NOTE
quotacheck should only be run by super-user. Non-privileged users are
presumably not allowed to read all the directories on the given
filesystem.
SEE ALSO
quota(1), quotactl(2), fstab(5), quotaon(8), repquota(8), con-
vertquota(8), setquota(8), edquota(8), fsck(8), efsck(8), e2fsck(8),
xfsck(8)
FILES
aquota.user or aquota.group
located at filesystem root with quotas (version 2 quota,
non-XFS filesystems)
quota.user or quota.group
located at filesystem root with quotas (version 1 quota,
non-XFS filesystems)
/etc/mtab names and locations of mounted filesystems
AUTHOR
Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Based on old quotacheck by:
Edvard Tuinder <ed@elm.net>
Marco van Wieringen <mvw@planets.elm.net>
Fri Jul 20 2001 quotacheck(8)
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