quotacheck(8)                                                                                                      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 usage, and compares this table against that recorded
       in the disk quota file for the filesystem (this step is ommitted if option -c is specified). 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 asso-
       ciated 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 interven-
       tion.  With no additional 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  quo-
       tacheck 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 writing 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 specified 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 option -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 duplicate 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  (version  1  quota),
              vfsv0 (version 2 quota), 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), convertquota(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 <jackATsuse.cz>
       Based on old quotacheck by:
       Edvard Tuinder <edATelm.net>
       Marco van Wieringen <mvwATplanets.net>



                                                         Fri Jul 20 2001                                           quotacheck(8)