Re: Linux/XFS equivalents of defrag, chkdsk?

[mike <mike@xxxxxxxxxx>]

first off, thanks for the reply.

On Sun, 29 Aug 2004, Chris Wedgwood wrote:

> On Sun, Aug 29, 2004 at 01:24:22PM -0700, mike wrote:
>
> > Are there Linux equivalents for the XFS filesystem for chkdsk (fsck
> > -n seemed like the only possibility and it does not work) or defrag?
> yes and no
>
>    xfs_repair can detect and repair damage for file-systems which are
>    *not* in use
>
>    xfs_fsr tries to reduce the fragmention of files
>
> there are not really the sane and windows chkdsk or defrag though
>
> > Perhaps the way XFS runs, defrag is useless/not required.
> file fragmentation shouldn't be a big issue with the exception of a a
> few applications / usage patterns (p2p applications are actually make
> this hard but that's true for all filesystems pretty much)
>
> > But it would be nice to be able to check filesystem consistency
> > (while it's mounted, so it'd be read-only checking obviously)
> can't really be done reliably, i guess you could snapshot, clone and
> check the clone, but it's really a hack
>
> > before something happens or while it's not in the process of booting
> > the machine.
> most people don't need to check the fs whilst it's mounted,
> file-system problems shouldn't occur that often
>
> if they are, something is wrong and it should be fixed
that's what i'm hoping to find BEFORE something bad happens.

how come windows can check it's filesystems and/or defrag while it's in 
use, but linux can't? i don't get that.
in summary, you're saying that if it's mounted, i'm SOL for doing any sort 
of filesystem optimizations or maintenance...?
thanks
- mike

>  --cw