Man pages › Compared with Linux and the BSDs

`quotaon(8)` on Solnix vs Linux and the BSDs

On Solnix, quotaon and quotaoff are the illumos commands at /usr/sbin/quotaon and manage quotas on ufs file systems only. They take only -a and -v. There is no -u or -g: the page names no user/group selection, and quotas live in a file named quotas, not quota.user and quota.group.

The manual pages

Solnix: quotaon(8) from pkgs.solnix.illumos-world-man · illumos.org
Linux: quotaon(8) quota-4.11
FreeBSD: quotaon(8) 15.1-RELEASE
OpenBSD: quotaon(8) 8.0
NetBSD: quotaon(8) 11.0

What Solnix runs

A default Solnix system runs the illumos quotaon at /usr/sbin/quotaon. No other variants are shipped. The one page covers both quotaon and quotaoff.

Differences

Compared with	Topic	What differs
all four	quota file name	Solnix needs one file named quotas, owned by root, in the root directory of the ufs file system. Linux uses aquota.user, quota.user, aquota.group or quota.group. FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD use quota.user and quota.group. Source: Solnix quotaon(8) DESCRIPTION; Linux quotaon(8) DESCRIPTION; FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD quotaon(8) DESCRIPTION
all four	`-u` and `-g` missing	Solnix quotaon and quotaoff have no `-u` or `-g`, so you cannot choose user or group quotas on the command line. The other four systems accept both. Linux defaults to user quotas. The BSDs default to both. Source: Solnix quotaon(8) SYNOPSIS; Linux quotaon(8) -u, -g; FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD quotaon(8) -u, -g
all four	`-a` source file	Solnix quotaon `-a` uses `/etc/vfstab` entries that have rq in the mntopts field, are mounted rw, and have a quotas file. Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD use `/etc/fstab.` Source: Solnix quotaon(8) -a; Linux quotaon(8) -a; FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD quotaon(8) -a
all four	quotaoff `-a` scope	Solnix quotaoff `-a` disables quotas on all file systems in `/etc/mnttab`, meaning those currently mounted. Linux quotaoff `-a` reads `/etc/fstab.` The BSD pages say `/etc/fstab` file systems read-write with quotas. Source: Solnix quotaon(8) OPTIONS quotaoff -a; Linux quotaon(8) quotaoff -a; FreeBSD quotaon(8) -a
all four	mnttab update	Solnix quotaon and quotaoff update the mntopts field in `/etc/mnttab`, adding or removing the string quota. The other pages do not describe any such update. Source: Solnix quotaon(8) DESCRIPTION; Linux/FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD quotaon(8) DESCRIPTION
all four	file system type	The Solnix page covers ufs file systems only. The Linux page also covers XFS and project quotas. The BSD pages say only file systems. Source: Solnix quotaon(8) NAME; Linux quotaon(8) DESCRIPTION, -P, -x; FreeBSD quotaon(8) NAME
Linux	Linux-only options	Linux has `-F` format, `-P`, `-p` (print state), `-f` (act like quotaoff), `-x` and long options. Solnix has none of these. To see state on Solnix, the page points to quota(8) and mnttab(5). Source: Linux quotaon(8) OPTIONS; Solnix quotaon(8) SYNOPSIS, SEE ALSO
FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD	target form	Solnix accepts a mount point or the block device. The BSD pages require the file system to have an `/etc/fstab` entry and be mounted. Solnix requires it to be mounted. Source: Solnix quotaon(8) DESCRIPTION; FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD quotaon(8) DESCRIPTION

Standards

POSIX: quotaon is not a POSIX.1-2024 utility.
Solnix: The page refers to largefile(7) for behaviour with files of 2^31 bytes or more. It gives no other standards statement.

Writing portable scripts

Only quotaon -a and quotaon -v work on all five systems. Do not pass -u or -g on Solnix.
Do not assume the quota file names or the boot-time list file: Solnix uses quotas and /etc/vfstab, the others use quota.* or aquota.* and /etc/fstab.

Every difference here is taken from the manual pages linked above: Solnix's published page, Linux (man-pages and the GNU and util-linux manuals), FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD. Each row names its source. Where a manual is silent, this page is too. Compiled 2026-10-26. Found a mistake? Mail hackers@lists.solnix.io.