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Defragmenter

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Defragmenter
Recycled directory
Safe writing
Space efficiency

The built-in defragmenter is currently under development.  It won't be finished for another couple of months, but we're confident we can finish it as the filesystem structure was designed from the beginning with transparent defragmenting in mind.

The defragmenter will run automatically in the background when there has been no disk activity for a specific period of time.  Defragmentation can start almost immediately without first having to do a lot of scanning of the disk.  No large structures need to be created during defragmentation so memory consumption will be very low (in the order of 10 to 100 kilobytes or so).  Defragmentation can be stopped at any time without losing any data.  Even a reset or powerfailure won't lose you any data.

The algorithm we will be using for defragmentation will be very straightforward, to conserve on memory and to be able to start and stop defragmenting within seconds.   Only files and free space will be defragmented.  For now, no attempt will be made to defragment directories and other internal structures.

Some kind of interface will be provided to monitor defragmentation while it is in progress, to control when it starts and to stop it when needed.  Later on we may even provide an interface for external defragmenation programs.


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For comments, problems or questions regarding this page contact John Hendrikx.
Last updated: 17 oktober 1998.