[KLUG Members] Defrag'ing ext3 filesystems?

[Bruce Smith]

> >Okay, all the usenet messages I've been reading about ext2/3 not needing
> >to be defragmented are full of crap!
> 
> *I* didn't say that. 

I didn't say _you_ did.  :-)   But a lot of others did.

> >Yesterday when I was downloading the ISO images for Redhat 8.0,
> >I was running two downloads at once, saving to the same partition.
> >This is sure to fragment the ISO images, but no problem, at
> >least according to the messages I've been reading in usenet...
> 
> How long has this file system been around?

I don't know, but it doesn't get used a lot and doesn't contain 
a lot files.  Mainly just a few big files I download off 'da net.

> >I've seen some defragment programs for ext2.  Does anyone know if they
> >work on ext3?
> 
> You'd have to convert your ext3 back to ext2, defragment, and then
> convert back to ext3.
> 
> But the defrag program has been pulled from the ext2/3 website. :(

That doesn't sound good.

> >Adam:  Checking the KLUG mailing list archives, I saw you had a defrag
> >program on your AWware CD of a couple years ago.  Has that been updated
> >for ext3?  What is the URL for it?  I haven't been able to locate it.
> 
> http://www.rpmfind.net//linux/RPM/contrib/libc6/i386/defrag-0.73-5.i386.html

I saw that one, but it has a slightly different filename than the one on
your CD.  I downloaded it anyway, and looked at the RPM header in hopes
of finding the home page, but it contained nothing useful.

> I haven't used it in awhile,  I don't know how much it will like newer
> 2.4.x kernerls.  It certainly knows nothing about ext3 filesystems.

I probably won't chance it.  Now that I know how severe this can be,
I'll be more careful when downloading big ISO images.

> Want to start making BS-Ware PRO again?

I take it your opinion of ReiserFS hasn't improved?  :-)

The thing I don't like about BSware-PRO is being dependent on SGI.
Has SGI released their XFS installer/kernel for RH 8.0?  I doubt it.

When a kernel security advisory is issued, I have to wait weeks for SGI
to come out with their patched kernel.  Plus updating from from one
release of Redhat to a newer one doesn't work.  XFS itself is good, but
adding to BSware is a pain.

Hopefully that'll change in future releases of Redhat.  Didn't I
recently read that XFS has been merged into the 2.5.x kernel?

--------------------------------------------
Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
--------------------------------------------