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Message-ID: <4F2EB017.5090006@redhat.com>
Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:36:39 -0600
From: Eric Sandeen <sandeen@...hat.com>
To: Ron Yorston <rmy@...ress.co.uk>
CC: xfs@....sgi.com, linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: sparsify - utility to punch out blocks of 0s in a file
On 2/5/12 3:33 AM, Ron Yorston wrote:
> Eric Sandeen wrote:
>
>> Now that ext4, xfs, & ocfs2 can support punch hole, a tool to
>> "re-sparsify" a file by punching out ranges of 0s might be in order.
>>
>> I'll see if util-linux wants it after it gets beat into shape.
>> (or did a tool like this already exist and I missed it?)
>
> Way ahead of you. I wrote my sparsify utility for ext2 in 2004:
>
> http://intgat.tigress.co.uk/rmy/uml/sparsify.html
Cool, I had not known about that one. But that one is a bit less generic -
ext2-specific and requiring an unmounted fs, right?
> It's mostly of historical interest now, I suppose. The sparsify utility
> doesn't work on ext4 and I long since gave up maintaining the kernel
> patch. I still use the zerofree utility, though.
>
> It would be nice to have a modern version of sparsify. I'll try it out.
Thanks!
Matthias' suggestion of adding SEEK_HOLE/SEEK_DATA makes very good sense too.
I should also untie the read/zero buffer size from the minimum hole size,
we should do optimal IO sizes regardless of the minimum hole size desired...
-Eric
> Ron
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