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

[Ron Yorston]

Eric Sandeen wrote:

>Now that ext4, xfs, & ocfs2 can support punch hole, a tool to
>"re-sparsify" a file by punching out ranges of 0s might be in order.
>
>I'll see if util-linux wants it after it gets beat into shape.
>(or did a tool like this already exist and I missed it?)

Way ahead of you.  I wrote my sparsify utility for ext2 in 2004:

   http://intgat.tigress.co.uk/rmy/uml/sparsify.html

It's mostly of historical interest now, I suppose.  The sparsify utility
doesn't work on ext4 and I long since gave up maintaining the kernel
patch.  I still use the zerofree utility, though.

It would be nice to have a modern version of sparsify.  I'll try it out.

Ron