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

[Andreas Dilger]

On 2012-02-05, at 9:36, Eric Sandeen <sandeen at redhat.com> wrote:
> On 2/5/12 3:33 AM, Ron Yorston wrote:
>> 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?)
> 
> 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...

> I should also untie the read/zero buffer size from the minimum hole size,
> we should do optimal IO sizes regardless of the minimum hole size desired...

Definitely. 4kB IO is a killer for large files.

Cheers, Andreas