Re: Re: Can't Defrag Ext3 File System
Leonard Chatagnier wrote:
Ok, I get your message, but for my gratification, insight and knowledge
of Linux how do I get the programs to run without error and not distroy
my harddisk? I'll run e2fsck to check on defragmentation but would still
like to know how to run the defrag program.
Thanks for your replys and consideration of my request,
>e2defrag can't defrag your filesystem because it doesn't understand
some of the options set on it. The >probable reason is the "dir_index"
flag (hashed directories for fast access when they have lots of files),
>but I don't even know if it could handle it even without it (because
of the journal).
I gathered this from the comments about the tune2fs commmand found in
man e2defrag but couldn't get the
features to add or remove as originally posted. If it had, I probably
would have run e2fsck and e2defrag
as indicated to defrag my hard drive. Guess its good I couldn't get the
programs to run. I gathered or assumed from the man that if I could get
the ext3 fs features to be removed or cleared that I could safely run
e2defrag. Now via the response postings that may have trashed my hard
drive.
>Bottom line is: if you could force it to do its job, it would most
likely trash your filesystem.
>But... as others said, you don't need to bother with fragmentation
with *nix filesystems in general.
Thanks for the reply as I would like to get to the bottom of this. I
get the general message. However, contrary to what has been said, I
have at least one partition with 4.5% fragmentation(e2fsck reports)
which I don't consider a trivial amound. And I understand if I attempt
to defrag(which the program wont even do as originally described) its
almost certain to trash my hard drive. Well, coming from m$windows as
most people have, its hard to accept that after many installs, removals,
upgrades, distribution upgrades, more removals and more, the drive wont
become considerably fragmented. Yet, all of you have said it wont. Can
you elaborate on why extension 3 file systems wont become fragmented
over time. Do I have to revert to ext 2 fs in order to defrag a hard
drive safely? Debian appears to put out the message that ext3 file
system is the greatest yet I don't seem to be able to use any utilities
to maintain it. Or if asking for comments on this is more than you care
to do, perhaps you can offer some references(normal human readable
types) that explains my concerns.
After several months, posts to lists, etc, I now have a fairly fully
functional Debian system even though something fails, or doesn't work
the same, just about every time I boot up or upgrade. I'm now at the
point I'd like to do some fine tuning to improve speed, etc., but
getting utilities to work right is difficult even after reading the
mans, infos, howtos, etc. I'm no programmer, but would like to get
comfortable with
linux and be able to handle most everything on my own. Reading man,
infos and googling hasn't helped much as most are written as if you had
a good background in linux and knew what was being talked about.
I appreciate your response and hope you will respond again.
>And one more thing, even if e2defrag could handle every kind of ext3
filesystem out there, I wouldn't ever >trust it. You could probably
count the people that have used it with the fingers in one hand (and
that >includes its author). :)
Why does Debian put out programs that will trash the system without at
least giving some warning?
Carlos Rodrigues
Thanks in advance for any followups on this.
Leonard Chatagnier
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