absolute vs. relative offsets in disklabel

[Oliver Fromme]

Ulrich Spoerlein wrote:
 > btw, how hard would it be to write a shrinkfs and perhaps movefs tool?

movefs shouldn't be very difficult, but shrinkfs is more
complex, because you have to relocate files and metadata
within the filesystem.  The shrink operation can fail if
there isn't enough space in the new size for all data
(and you need to take into account that not only data
space is reduced, but also the number of inodes).  Snap-
shots will make it even more complicated.

But then again, harddisks tend to get bigger, so there is
probably not much need for a shrinkfs tool.

Best regards
   Oliver

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Oliver Fromme,  secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing
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