From: card@masi.ibp.fr (Remy CARD) Subject: Re: defragger for ext2fs? Date: 2 Apr 1993 04:47:19 GMT
In article <1993Apr1.042033.10344@r-node.hub.org> marc@r-node.hub.org (Marc G Fournier) writes:
>Hi...
>
> Just curious as to whether there is an upcoming release of a
>defragger for the ext2 file system? as it uses a different mechanism
>for keeping track of free blocks and such over the ext file system, I
>do presume that they are not compatible?
The ext fs and the ext 2 fs are not structure compatible so edefrag
won't run on an ext 2 fs. There is no defragmenter for the ext 2 fs.
Note that it is not so bad as it seems : the ext 2 fs causes *much*
less fragmentation than ext fs so there is very little need for a defragmenter.
Moreover, Stephen Tweedie (the author of defrag and edefrag) has
rewritten the ext 2 fs allocation routines and they should produce even
less fragmentation than before in the next version. Now, thanks to Stephen's
good work, the ext 2 fs tries (and succeeds in most cases) to allocate
contigous blocks for the same file. These new allocation routines are already
included in Linus' latest Alpha kernel.
>
> On the same note...is there an upcoming 'new' release of the
>ext2fs progs? I'm going to start converting my file systems over now
>that I know that my kernel isn't going to halt the system (pl7 did,
>pl7A hasn't), but am curious as to how soon the next release is coming
>out before I do it :)
I have modified mke2fs and e2fsck to correct some bugs, add some
features and make them use *much* less memory. I have released a test version
for testers and the public release of the new ext 2 fs programs should be
available soon (next week) if don't receive problems reports before.
>
>Marc
>--
>Marc G. Fournier | FREE R-node Public Access Unix FREE
>Etobicoke, Ontario | 2300+ newsgroups network email Linux 0.99p7A
>voice: 249-4230 | shell accounts 24hrs 7 days/week 416-249-5366
>marc@r-node.hub.org | Telebit WorldBlazer/SupraModem 2400/P.P. v.32bis