Re: How do I defragment a Linux drive?
man fsck -matt :) >Resent-Date: 5 Jan 2000 16:28:00 - >Resent-Cc: recipient list not shown: ; >MBOX-Line: From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Jan 5 11:27:58 2000 >Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2000 17:28:30 +0100 >From: Gustav Schaffter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >X-Accept-Language: en >MIME-Version: 1.0 >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Re: How do I defragment a Linux drive? >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >Resent-Message-ID: <"vNmw62.0.0V3.D4tSu"@lists.redhat.com> >Resent-From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >X-Mailing-List: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archive/latest/11019 >X-Loop: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Resent-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >X-URL: http://www.redhat.com > >Alan, > >I won't argue with you on ext2. You probably know that a lot better than >me. > >OTOH, OS/2 Warp uses HPFS, which was also said (by Microsoft !-) to keep >defragmentation low and shouldn't need any defragmentation. Experience >showed, though, that defragging an HPFS partition *could* make a >difference. Primarily on partitions with static (or almost static) data >residing on them. > >Defraggers were made and they proved a performance gain. Not that you >felt the difference in the keyboard, but for disk intensive apps it was >measurable. > >Just a thought. >Gustav > >Alan Mead wrote: >> >> At 01:18 PM 1/4/00 -0600, Joseph Wagner wrote: >> >> >How do I defragment these partitions? >> >> I didn't see any replies so I'll throw this in and someone can correct me >> if I'm wrong: I've never seen a defrag for Linux and my understanding was >> that ext2 didn't need it. I would hazard a guess that this means it >> automatically keep fragmentation low. >> --- >> Alan D. Mead / Research Scientist / [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Institute for Personality and Ability Testing >> 1801 Woodfield Dr / Savoy IL 61874 USA >> 217-352-4739 (v) / 217-352-9674 (f) >> >> -- >> To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" >> as the Subject. > >-- >pgp = Pretty Good Privacy. > >To get my public pgp key, send an e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Visit my web site at http://www.schaffter.com > > >-- >To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" >as the Subject. -- Matthew Chapman Unix Engineer Orange County Public Schools * my opinion is not necessarily that of my employer ;) -- To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
Re: How do I defragment a Linux drive?
{ somewhat off topic, for the file system curious }
On Wed, 5 Jan 2000, Gustav Schaffter wrote:
> OTOH, OS/2 Warp uses HPFS, which was also said (by Microsoft !-) to keep
> defragmentation low and shouldn't need any defragmentation. Experience
> showed, though, that defragging an HPFS partition *could* make a
> difference. Primarily on partitions with static (or almost static) data
> residing on them.
HPFS tried very hard to avoid fragmenting files. The file APIs took an
optional parameter of file length, and used this to find a free space on
disk with enough space for the file; if not enough was available, it
looked for free fragments nearby each other to improve read
performance. When this parameter was not provided by the application, the
file system did its best. Since not all (in fact, very few) applications
used this feature, HPFS was prone to fragmentation, just not as prone as
FAT. Since most of us came from FAT to HPFS, this was still an amazing
improvement.
Most of the defraggers which were made were just programs which made a
copy of every file on the disk, providing its length to the file system,
and it let HPFS do its best. This worked suprisingly well.
Finally, for the interest, NTFS is a descendent of HPFS, and is basically
HPFS with security features added.
Rob, showing his OS/2 roots...
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persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress
depends on the unreasonable man." G.B. Shaw
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Re: How do I defragment a Linux drive?
On Wed, 5 Jan 2000, Alan Mead wrote: > >How do I defragment these partitions? > I didn't see any replies so I'll throw this in and someone can correct me > if I'm wrong: I've never seen a defrag for Linux and my understanding was > that ext2 didn't need it. I would hazard a guess that this means it > automatically keep fragmentation low. It is my understanding that: Most unix file systems, including ext2, scatter files across a drive (intentionally) as a form of avoiding intra-file fragmentation. This tends to keep down file fragmentation, and seek time doesn't tend to vary a lot since the drive heads always tends to move around a lot. Advantage is performance doesn't degrade horribly the way a fragged FAT partition does. (Incidentally, this makes evident one of the few uses for disk spanning.) All this said, I haven't ever seen a defragged unix drive, and thus don't know what if any performance difference it would make. Rob -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]http://iabervon.mit.edu "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." G.B. Shaw -- To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
Re: How do I defragment a Linux drive?
Here's a ext2 defragmenter: http://freshmeat.net/appindex/1999/11/08/942118543.html Please try it out on you less critical partitions and let us know how it did! :) -Eric Wood -Original Message- From: Gustav Schaffter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wednesday, January 05, 2000 11:28 AM Subject: Re: How do I defragment a Linux drive? >Alan, > >I won't argue with you on ext2. You probably know that a lot better than >me. > >OTOH, OS/2 Warp uses HPFS, which was also said (by Microsoft !-) to keep >defragmentation low and shouldn't need any defragmentation. Experience >showed, though, that defragging an HPFS partition *could* make a >difference. Primarily on partitions with static (or almost static) data >residing on them. > >Defraggers were made and they proved a performance gain. Not that you >felt the difference in the keyboard, but for disk intensive apps it was >measurable. > >Just a thought. >Gustav > >Alan Mead wrote: >> >> At 01:18 PM 1/4/00 -0600, Joseph Wagner wrote: >> >> >How do I defragment these partitions? >> >> I didn't see any replies so I'll throw this in and someone can correct me >> if I'm wrong: I've never seen a defrag for Linux and my understanding was >> that ext2 didn't need it. I would hazard a guess that this means it >> automatically keep fragmentation low. >> --- >> Alan D. Mead / Research Scientist / [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Institute for Personality and Ability Testing >> 1801 Woodfield Dr / Savoy IL 61874 USA >> 217-352-4739 (v) / 217-352-9674 (f) >> >> -- >> To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" >> as the Subject. > >-- >pgp = Pretty Good Privacy. > >To get my public pgp key, send an e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Visit my web site at http://www.schaffter.com > > >-- >To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" >as the Subject. > -- To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
Re: How do I defragment a Linux drive?
Alan, I won't argue with you on ext2. You probably know that a lot better than me. OTOH, OS/2 Warp uses HPFS, which was also said (by Microsoft !-) to keep defragmentation low and shouldn't need any defragmentation. Experience showed, though, that defragging an HPFS partition *could* make a difference. Primarily on partitions with static (or almost static) data residing on them. Defraggers were made and they proved a performance gain. Not that you felt the difference in the keyboard, but for disk intensive apps it was measurable. Just a thought. Gustav Alan Mead wrote: > > At 01:18 PM 1/4/00 -0600, Joseph Wagner wrote: > > >How do I defragment these partitions? > > I didn't see any replies so I'll throw this in and someone can correct me > if I'm wrong: I've never seen a defrag for Linux and my understanding was > that ext2 didn't need it. I would hazard a guess that this means it > automatically keep fragmentation low. > --- > Alan D. Mead / Research Scientist / [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Institute for Personality and Ability Testing > 1801 Woodfield Dr / Savoy IL 61874 USA > 217-352-4739 (v) / 217-352-9674 (f) > > -- > To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" > as the Subject. -- pgp = Pretty Good Privacy. To get my public pgp key, send an e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit my web site at http://www.schaffter.com -- To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
Re: How do I defragment a Linux drive?
At 01:18 PM 1/4/00 -0600, Joseph Wagner wrote: >How do I defragment these partitions? I didn't see any replies so I'll throw this in and someone can correct me if I'm wrong: I've never seen a defrag for Linux and my understanding was that ext2 didn't need it. I would hazard a guess that this means it automatically keep fragmentation low. --- Alan D. Mead / Research Scientist / [EMAIL PROTECTED] Institute for Personality and Ability Testing 1801 Woodfield Dr / Savoy IL 61874 USA 217-352-4739 (v) / 217-352-9674 (f) -- To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
How do I defragment a Linux drive?
On a check, my hdb1 (/boot) has 8.3% non-contiguous space and hdb6 (/) has 1.3% non-contiguous space. These are the only ext2 partitions on my drive. How do I defragment these partitions? Thanks in advance. Joseph Wagner -- To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
