2002-04-10 13:06:13

by Tim Kay

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: R/W compressed fs support??

Hello,
Does anyone know of a Linux equivalent to DoubleSpace or whatever that
allows you read and _write_ to a compressed partiton or filesystem (in a way
that is transparent to the progs using the fs). I know there was e2compr but
that doesn't seem to have been touched in nearly 2 years, and is 2.2
specific, Infotec and the CBD patch seem to have died and zlibc seems to be a
read only solution. I'd have thought this would have been a biggie for
embedded device people but there doesn't seem to be anything out there.

Any pointers greatfully received....

T.I.A.

Tim

----------------
Tim Kay
systems administrator
Advfn.com Plc


2002-04-10 18:20:27

by Padraig Brady

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: R/W compressed fs support??

e2compr for 2.4 is being implemented by alcatel (France).
I've successfully used it with 2.4.16 (against filesystems
created with the 2.2 version). although I haven't stressed
it yet. "Denis Richard" <[email protected]> should
have more info (and the 769777 byte patch).

Padraig.

Tim Kay wrote:
> Hello,
> Does anyone know of a Linux equivalent to DoubleSpace or whatever that
> allows you read and _write_ to a compressed partiton or filesystem (in a way
> that is transparent to the progs using the fs). I know there was e2compr but
> that doesn't seem to have been touched in nearly 2 years, and is 2.2
> specific, Infotec and the CBD patch seem to have died and zlibc seems to be a
> read only solution. I'd have thought this would have been a biggie for
> embedded device people but there doesn't seem to be anything out there.
>
> Any pointers greatfully received....
>
> T.I.A.
>
> Tim


2002-04-12 07:33:17

by Eric W. Biederman

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: R/W compressed fs support??

Padraig Brady <[email protected]> writes:

> e2compr for 2.4 is being implemented by alcatel (France).
> I've successfully used it with 2.4.16 (against filesystems
> created with the 2.2 version). although I haven't stressed
> it yet. "Denis Richard" <[email protected]> should
> have more info (and the 769777 byte patch).
>
> Padraig.
>
> Tim Kay wrote:
> > Hello,
> > Does anyone know of a Linux equivalent to DoubleSpace or whatever that
> > allows you read and _write_ to a compressed partiton or filesystem (in a way
> > that is transparent to the progs using the fs). I know there was e2compr but
> > that doesn't seem to have been touched in nearly 2 years, and is 2.2 specific,
>
> > Infotec and the CBD patch seem to have died and zlibc seems to be a read only
> > solution. I'd have thought this would have been a biggie for embedded device
> > people but there doesn't seem to be anything out there. Any pointers
> > greatfully received....
> > T.I.A.
> > Tim

To do this efficiently this requires allocate on write support which
is just being developed for the kernel. But the dirty data in the page
cache certainly helps. And since the 2.2.x code didn't use the page cache
it was a challenge to port forward. For most users disks have gotten
so big that it isn't much of an issue anymore.

Though seeing as I have filled my 20GB disk with code it might be worth
taking a look at.

Eric