[KLUG Members] scp & sparse files

[Bruce Smith]

> > > I have a ~70Gb file but only about ~6Gb is allocated.  What happens if I
> > > try to scp it? (Does scp support sparse-ness?) Or should I tarball it
> > > first?
> > Good question, please let us know what you find out!  :-)
> 
> Doesn't seem too.  
> 
> BTW, large sparse files on reiserfs........ WOW WOW WOW IS THAT
> SSSS-LLLLL-OOOOO-WWWWW.  XFS - 11 minutes.  Reiserfs - Gave up after
> three hours.  Google says I'm not alone in thinking Reiserfs + sparse
> files = disaster.

What took 11 minutes / 3+ hours?  The scp?  tar?  ... ?

> A 39Gb sparse file with 6.2Gb allocated became a 3.7Gb tar file I can
> move around with worrying (too much) about the underlying filesystem. 
> Although between my XFS SuSe box and my Resierfs SuSe box (equivalent
> hardware) I can easily notice the performance difference when moving a
> +2Gb file around.

You're using 'mv' between different filesystems or the same FS?

Also, is there a utility on Linux to give the specs of how much space is
allocated on sparse file, other than du/df ?  Does 'stat' show it ...?

 - BS