xfs_fsr - filesystem reorganizer for XFS
xfs_fsr [-vdg]
[ -t seconds] [-p passes] [-f leftoff] [-m mtab]
xfs_fsr [-vdg]
[xfsdev | file] ...
xfs_fsr -V
xfs_fsr is applicable only to XFS filesystems.
xfs_fsr improves the organization of mounted filesystems. The
reorganization algorithm operates on one file at a time, compacting or
otherwise improving the layout of the file extents (contiguous blocks of file
data).
The following options are accepted by
xfs_fsr. The
-m,
-t,
and
-f options have no meaning if any filesystems or files are
specified on the command line.
-
-m mtab
- Use this file for the list of filesystems to reorganize.
The default is to use /etc/mtab.
-
-t seconds
- How long to reorganize. The default is 7200 seconds (2
hours).
-
-p passes
- Number of passes before terminating global re-org. The
default is 10 passes.
-
-f leftoff
- Use this file instead of /var/tmp/.fsrlast to read
the state of where to start and as the file to store the state of where
reorganization left off.
- -v
- Verbose. Print cryptic information about each file being
reorganized.
- -d
- Debug. Print even more cryptic information.
- -g
- Print to syslog (default if stdout not a tty).
- -V
- Prints the version number and exits.
When invoked with no arguments
xfs_fsr reorganizes all regular files in
all mounted filesystems.
xfs_fsr makes many cycles over
/etc/mtab each time making a single pass over each XFS filesystem. Each
pass goes through and selects files that have the largest number of extents.
It attempts to defragment the top 10% of these files on each pass.
It runs for up to two hours after which it records the filesystem where it left
off, so it can start there the next time. This information is stored in the
file
/var/tmp/.fsrlast_xfs. If the information found here is somehow
inconsistent or out of date it is ignored and reorganization starts at the
beginning of the first filesystem found in
/etc/mtab.
xfs_fsr can be called with one or more arguments naming filesystems
(block device name), and files to reorganize. In this mode
xfs_fsr does
not read or write
/var/tmp/.fsrlast_xfs nor does it run for a fixed
time interval. It makes one pass through each specified regular file and all
regular files in each specified filesystem. A command line name referring to a
symbolic link (except to a file system device), FIFO, or UNIX domain socket
generates a warning message, but is otherwise ignored. While traversing the
filesystem these types of files are silently skipped.
- /etc/mtab
- contains default list of filesystems to reorganize.
- /var/tmp/.fsrlast_xfs
- records the state where reorganization left off.
,
mkfs.xfs(8),
xfs_ncheck(8),
xfs(5).
xfs_fsr improves the layout of extents for each file by copying the
entire file to a temporary location and then interchanging the data extents of
the target and temporary files in an atomic manner. This method requires that
enough free disk space be available to copy any given file and that the space
be less fragmented than the original file. It also requires the owner of the
file to have enough remaining filespace quota to do the copy on systems
running quotas.
xfs_fsr generates a warning message if space is not
sufficient to improve the target file.
A temporary file used in improving a file given on the command line is created
in the same parent directory of the target file and is prefixed by the string
'
.fsr'. The temporary files used in improving an entire XFS device are
stored in a directory at the root of the target device and use the same naming
scheme. The temporary files are unlinked upon creation so data will not be
readable by any other process.
xfs_fsr does not operate on files that are currently mapped in memory. A
'file busy' error can be seen for these files if the verbose flag (
-v)
is set.
Files marked as no-defrag will be skipped. The
xfs_io(8) chattr command
with the f attribute can be used to set or clear this flag. Files and
directories created in a directory with the no-defrag flag will inherit the
attribute.
An entry in
/etc/mtab or the file specified using the
-m option
must have the
rw option specified for read and write access. If this
option is not present, then
xfs_fsr skips the filesystem described by
that line. See the
fstab(5) reference page for more details.
In general we do not foresee the need to run
xfs_fsr on system partitions
such as
/,
/boot and
/usr as in general these will not
suffer from fragmentation. There are also issues with defragmenting files
lilo(8) uses to boot your system. It is recommended that these files
should be flagged as no-defrag with the
xfs_io(8) chattr command.
Should these files be moved by
xfs_fsr then you must rerun
lilo
before you reboot or you may have an unbootable system.