How to Use Quota to Display Disk Usage

It is common to want to know how much disk space a particular group or user on a system is allowed or how much total disk space has been used by a user or group. In these cases, you would use quota to display disk usage. Users are usually entitled to display their own usage or the usage of their work group. The default is to display disk space usage for the current user. System administrators and group managers are often interested in disk usage for others, though, and are granted access to disk usage for all users.

Use Quota to Display Disk Usage

Step1 Format using '-F'. The quota for the format you identify will be displayed.

Step2 Use '-g' for groups. This is one of those fortunate intuitive options that is easy to remember and commonly used. Instead of the individual's quota, this option allows you to view disk usage for the entire group the user is a part of. It can display multiple groups since many users find themselves working on different projects in different groups.

Step3 Use '-i' if there are mountpoints that you want to ignore.

Step4 Use '-l' for local quotas, meaning quotas on local filesystems only.

Step5 Think about when quota knowledge is relevant. Often, you only want to know when a user has exceeded quota. In this case, you would use '-q' to display disk usage of a user who is over quota.

Step6 Try to make work easier for you. One way to accomplish this is to choose the units used in display. You can do this with the '-s' option.

Step7 Use '-v' for quota information for all file systems.

Step8 Modify default behavior with '-u'. You can combine this option with '-g' to access information for both the user's disk usage and usage for the entire group.

Step9 Consider taking refresher courses periodically. New products are always entering the market, and new features are constantly being added.