> Hi, If the file contains the sparse bits then can anybody > guide me , how to remove those ? For example when I am > checking file.img [ as below] , it's size is 38G. Basically > it's size is 93G because of the sparse.
You are using "size" in two completely different meanings. > [root@server]# du -sh file.img > 38G file.img > [root@server]# du -sh --apparent-size file.img > 93G file.img The 38G is the blocks used, an implementation detail, and the 93G is the file length, a property of the file. The space occupied is usually greater than the length of the file for several reasons, and can be smaller if it is sparse enough (or if it is transparently compressed). > I need the 'du -sh' and 'du-sh --apprent-size ' should be > same and ie, 38G. Help is really appreciate. What you seem to want is absolutely impossible. If a file is 93G long, it is 93G long. It may only require 38G of space occupied if it is sparse, but you cannot truncate its length to 38G without losing information. You can fully allocate it, or perhaps deallocate if there any all-zero blocks withing it and release them, but that's it. Perhaps you should state what you are trying to achieve, because that may make sense. Public service announcement: sparse VM disk images that are sparse because incrementally allocated tend to perform terribly. I have seen VM disk images created by some !"%^& with over a million fragments as they grew from a few GiB to a hundred GiB (that itself is a bad idea). _______________________________________________ rhelv5-list mailing list rhelv5-list@redhat.com https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/rhelv5-list