[TriLUG] Defragmentation

[Rev. Christian J Hedemark]

Randy said:
> No, you don't need to defrag.  But I can't point to a reference at the
moment.

This IBM article would tend to disagree:
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/partitiontip.html

The ext2fs tools homepage has a defrag tool.
http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/ext2.html

There are many other sources on the subject.  At best, ext2 can be described
as "fragmentation resistent".  If you keep a lot of larger files you're more
likely to need the help of periodic defragmentation.  Most people will not
need it.  Engineering shops, like my former employer, has need of periodic
defragmentation as individual files could be 1 or 2 GB in size and readily
fragment on ext2.

Reverend Christian J Hedemark II
Hillsborough, NC
http://yonderway.com