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Re: Question about sparse files

To: John Groves <John@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Question about sparse files
From: Eric Sandeen <sandeen@xxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 17:14:00 -0500
Cc: linux-xfs@xxxxxxxxxxx
In-reply-to: <44905B9F.5000401@GrovesTech.com>
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John Groves wrote:
A question for those who know more about xfs internals than me:

If want to create sparse files that XFS can handle efficiently, is there an optimal minimum sparse chunk size? I can look at an data stream for null segments and make them sparse, but I presume I shouldn't make 1 byte sparse extents.

No such thing; extents (and holes) are a minimum of one filesystem block, in block multiples. A sparse file has offsets with no written data that span at least 1 complete filesystem block, beginning & ending on a block boundary. zeroed data ranges which are sub-block in size are just zeros written to disk, inside the filesystem block, part of a real extent.


-Eric

File size will range from small to multiple GB, but large files are the norm.

Thanks,
John Groves



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