On Thu, 24 Jan 2002, Naren Devaiah wrote:

> limit fragmentation, but fragmentation does occur especially when the
> size of the file is less in comparison to the size of the data block
> used to store the file.

That is what is known as internal fragmentation.  defragmentation does 
not change this.  defragmentation will only help external fragmentation.

external fragmentation is when a single file is spread out over 
non-contiguous sectors on the disk.  defragmentation brings all these 
parts together, in sequential order, so that the disk head does not need 
to move while reading the file.

internal fragmentation on the other hand can only be fixed by making 
smaller block sizes.  this requires a reformat of the partition.

a second alternative would be to store really small files within the 
inode itself, using dereferencing only for files that are larger than 
the inode.

Not sure if this is the right one, but I think this paper explains some 
stuff: http://www.reiserfs.org/whitepaper.html

-- 
"All this modern technology just makes people try to do everything at once."
                -- Hobbes


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