Re: [gentoo-user] zeroing out files and unused diskspace

[Norbert Kamenicky]

Johan Van den Neste wrote:

Are there any tools in portage that do this? I had a quick look, but I
can't really find one. I mainly want this for use in a vmware gentoo
install, to minimize the size of a compressed image.
 

I do not know about such tools, but know the trick how to do it:
just write a file full of zeros (as root) to the partition u like to 
compress
like this:

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/mounted_fs/dummy bs=4k

It will stop with error "No space left on device" or something
similar ...
now delete the dummy file and fs is ready for compression.
Warning:
Do it from another root fs (or from live CD), since u can get
in troubles if doing it on running root fs.
noro







--
[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list