Re: [Xen-users] Understanding sparse-files

["Todd Deshane" <deshantm@xxxxxxxxx>]

> There are some problems with sparse files: the compress beautfully (gzip
> reports 99.9%) but it takes a while to read the empty space and when you
> uncompress the file you discover that it now actually occupies disk space:
> there's no good way to distinguish between an unallocated block and a block
> full of zeroes.   This also means that you need to be careful how you back
> these files up: you need something a little cleverer than gzip.

You can use tar with the S (sparse) option here.
Also I think that you should be able to use cp
with a --sparse option as well.

To distinguish, using the du command helps.

Cheers,
Todd

-- 
Todd Deshane
http://todddeshane.net
http://runningxen.com

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