Disk defragmenter in Linux

[Tim]

Tim:
>>> I was under the impression that the directory structure was recorded in
>>> manner that's different from how the files are stored.

Mike McCarty:
>> You may know something that I do not. I thought everything was inodes.

David L. Gehrt:
> If you  look in the Linux  header files you  can see the structure  of a
> directory entry  in a directory.  A  directory is a  structured file but
> one treated differently by the OS because the directory bit is set in its
> inode.  But  like other  files, in some  sense, it  is just bits  on the
> platter, albeit with  some structure, as such a  directory IS subject to
> possible fragmentation.

I was thinking of the following, though I may be mixing up this file
system with another type:  The directory structure being stored some
distance away from the files, so that one doesn't tend to fragment the
other.

It's been a long time since I read about the nitty-gritty of filing
systems, it's not the sort of thing I do for fun.  ;-\  It tends to be
the sort of thing you read as you're diagnosing some condition
(somewhere along the line, someone explains how it works behind the
scenes).

-- 
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