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Date:      Tue, 11 Jun 1996 01:43:04 +0100
From:      "Gary Palmer" <gpalmer@FreeBSD.ORG>
To:        Sean Batson <valtech@caribnet.net>
Cc:        questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: defrags 
Message-ID:  <23853.834453784@palmer.demon.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 10 Jun 1996 19:45:48 EDT." <Pine.BSF.3.91.960610193940.207A-100000@fb03.caribnet.net> 

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Sean Batson wrote in message ID
<Pine.BSF.3.91.960610193940.207A-100000@fb03.caribnet.net>:
> How is fragmentation dealt with under FreeBSD?

It's semi-automatic. The system tries it's best to create
non-fragmented files, but won't go to the length of de-fragmenting
other files in order to make more contiguous disk space available.

> Is there a utility for defragmenting the Hard Drive?

Nope (not for FreeBSD anyhow)

> How do i defrag the above partitions?

You don't. 0.7% is nothing to worry about anyhow.

Well, actually, you can, sort of. You make a tar image of the
filesytem, newfs it, then restore from the tar image. That leaves you
with the filesystem as de-fragmented as it'll go.

Unless you have a slow drive, or are REALLY worried about SMALL
performance hits, fragmentation is generally not a problem. I don't
have any figures, but I'd be surprised if fragmentation values of up
to several percent made any appreciable difference to FS performance
for most use. Personally, I'd guess system bottlenecks (disk
performance under multi-user loads, I/O & RAM & processor bandwidth)
would affect performance more than fragmentation.

Gary
--
Gary Palmer                                          FreeBSD Core Team Member
FreeBSD: Turning PC's into workstations. See http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/ for info



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