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Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can resume after stopping.

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On 2026.05.12 18:45, Dale wrote:
> Howdy,
> 
> As most likely know, I have some fairly large storage systems here. I  
> have one that while doing a fsck on, I noticed that it is really  
> fragmented.  Something around 40% or so.  I'm running e4defrag on it  
> but I suspect something will cause me to have to stop it before it  
> finishes.  It has over 50TBs of data on it.  It's going to take a  
> while.  I've looked at the man page and it has no resume option or  
> many options at all really.  One to test, one to defrag is really  
> it.  Rest is visual options like verbose.
> 
> I've googled around looking to see if someone came up with a  
> script/tool or something that can defrag a file system and can resume  
> if needed.  I can't find one.  Given e4defrag doesn't have good way  
> to do it, I'm not surprised really.  The only thing I can come up  
> with is to create a list of files that needs to be defraged, and then  
> have a script that does them one by one until it is done. May require  
> running more than once to really get the job done.
> 
> I have other file systems that are doing a lot better than this one  
> but I also understand why this one is being fragmented so much. This  
> file system receives files that are not complete but is being  
> constantly written to until over time, it does complete.  This file  
> system is on the receiving end of a disaster for keeping files in one  
> long write.  I'm sure ext4 is doing the best it can but it can only  
> do so much.  I doubt any file system can do any better.
> 
> Does anyone know of a tool to use that has a resume option and works  
> on ext4?  Obviously, I'd like it to be something that is well tested  
> and known to be safe.  I'm just not having any luck finding one  
> myself.  Maybe one doesn't exist.

Why not just start it again?  It isn't going to defrag any files it  
already defragged, is it?  As long as interrupting it is safe, and  
doesn't ever leave a damaged file or file system, I can't think of any  
problems.

Jack

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[gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can resume  after stopping. Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> - 2026-05-13 00:50 +0200
  Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can  resume after stopping. Jack <ostroffjh@users.sourceforge.net> - 2026-05-13 01:10 +0200
    Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can  resume after stopping. Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> - 2026-05-13 04:30 +0200
    Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can resume  after stopping. Michael <confabulate@kintzios.com> - 2026-05-13 12:50 +0200
    Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can  resume after stopping. Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> - 2026-05-13 13:40 +0200
        Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can resume  after stopping. Michael <confabulate@kintzios.com> - 2026-05-13 14:10 +0200
        Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can  resume after stopping. Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> - 2026-05-13 18:00 +0200
          Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can  resume after stopping. Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> - 2026-05-13 18:50 +0200
            Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can  resume after stopping. Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> - 2026-05-13 20:20 +0200
              Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can  resume after stopping. Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> - 2026-05-14 00:10 +0200
                  Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can resume  after stopping. Michael <confabulate@kintzios.com> - 2026-05-14 12:40 +0200
                [gentoo-user] Re: File system defragmentation. Something that can resume after stopping. Holger Hoffstätte <holger@applied-asynchrony.com> - 2026-05-14 18:20 +0200
                  Re: [gentoo-user] Re: File system defragmentation. Something that can resume  after stopping. Michael <confabulate@kintzios.com> - 2026-05-14 19:40 +0200
                Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can  resume after stopping. Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> - 2026-05-14 19:10 +0200
                Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can  resume after stopping. Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> - 2026-05-15 21:40 +0200
                Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can  resume after stopping. Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> - 2026-05-17 23:30 +0200
                Re: [gentoo-user] File system defragmentation. Something that can  resume after stopping. Mitchell Dorrell <mwd@psc.edu> - 2026-05-14 19:50 +0200

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