[H-GEN] e2fs compression utility

[jason parker]

howdy.

For anyone who may be interested, have a look at:

http://www.netspace.net.au/~reiter/e2compr.html

for patches to linux kernels to facilitate file compression.  What
happens is this:  chattr and the kernel are patched, along with some
of the e2fs utils to allow you to do a "chattr +c /file/", which is
then compressed, and flagged.  When working on a directory, the flag
says that any files or directories created under that dir have the
flag too.

Fs access seems to slow noticeably, but once it's in the buffers (or
is that cache?) and hence in RAM, it's all the same, anyhow.  I
compressed /usr and /home last night, and there seem to be very few
ill effects.  (I've got more spare clock cycles than bytes. ;) )

Watching your free space go from 10% to 40% is *very* nice.

Jason `I'll be giving this extensive testing' Parker
ph330812 at student.uq.edu.au

-----
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