Re: sparsify - utility to punch out blocks of 0s in a file

[Matthias Schniedermeyer <ms@xxxxxxx>]

On 05.02.2012 09:55, Andreas Dilger wrote:

> > Matthias' suggestion of adding SEEK_HOLE/SEEK_DATA makes very good sense 
> > too.
> 
> I thought about this, but if SEEK_HOLE/SEEK_DATA (or FIEMAP) worked, then the 
> file would already be sparse, so I don't think that will help in this case...

With that argumentation you wouldn't need the tool in the first place.

"How can a bunch of zeros be in a file in the first place?"
"Can only be because of the deficiency of another program."

And who is to say that you wouldn't want to repeat such a thing from 
time to time, without SEEK_HOLE/SEEK_DATE you MAY crunch through big 
regions of zeros for no gain at all.



Bis denn

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