[Discuss] File systems that support file cloning

[gaf.linux at gmail.com (Jerry Feldman)]

I have successfully shrunk fat and ntfs file systems along with ext 2,3 and
4.

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Jerry Feldman <gaf.linux at gmail.com>
Boston Linux and Unix http://www.blu.org
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On Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 8:56 AM Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:

>
> On Thu, November 17, 2022 8:43 am, Rich Pieri wrote:
>
> [snip]
> >> The only feature that I desire that xfs doesn't have is file system
> >> shrinking.  It does have file system expansion, and oddly, it is
> >> *only* available when the file system is mounted.  I'm a little
> >> surprised that nobody has implemented shrinking yet.
> >
> > Because it's hard. The only file system I can recall supporting volume
> > shrinking is IBM's JFS.
>
> I am pretty sure that ext2/3/4 supports shrinking.
>
> Certainly (V)FAT supports shrinking (although I am certainly not
> recommending that).
>
> Shrinking a FS can sometimes be important.  For example, I was working on
> a device firmware image and the device they gave me to work with had a
> 128GB eMMC whereas the "production" devices have a 32G eMMC.  So the
> filesystem image I created was for 128G, which meant it couldn't flash
> onto a 32G device without shrinking.
>
> So yes, shrinking *IS* important (in some circumstances).
>
> -derek
>
> --
>        Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
>        derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
>        Computer and Internet Security Consultant
>
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