GNU bug report logs - #5918
[dd] conv=sparse option

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From: "H. Langos" <henrik-gnu <at> prak.org>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: bug#5918: [dd] conv=sparse option
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:14:48 +0200

On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 04:33:07PM +0100, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> On 10/04/10 01:28, Heinrich Langos wrote:
> > Hello Andreas, Samuel and list,
> > 
> > sorry to pick up such an old thread, but I stumbled upon it while
> > looking for an efficient way to "re-sparse" files that contain a 
> > lot of zero blocks but 
> > 1) had already been expanded 
> > or 
> > 2) are being expanded due to pipes.
> > 
> > On Sun, Dec 30, 2007 at 10:19:54AM +0100, Andreas Schwab wrote:
> >> Samuel Thibault <samuel.thibault <at> ens-lyon.org> writes:
> >>
> >>> Some time ago, I wrote a conv=sparse option for dd, attached is the
> >>> patch.
> >>
> >> How is it different from cp --sparse=always?
> > 
> > I'd say in enough ways to make such an option highly desirable.
> > 
> > a) "dd" will maintain an existing of=target file including the inode 
> >    number, thus respecting existing hard links. "cp" will depending 
> >    on the other options given (e.g. "-a") maintain or break existing 
> >    hard links to an existing target file.
> 
> I don't think that's possible as holes can only be created at the end of a file.
> Well I think NTFS supports punching holes in the "middle" but it's not common.
> 
> > 
> > b) "dd" could read a stream from a device or stdin and write it directly 
> >    to a sparse file. no need to "dd" from e.g. a block device to a file and 
> >    afterwards do a "cp --sparse=always file sparse-file". this will save a 
> >    lot of disk space, io operations and time.
> 
> This seems to work:
> cp --sparse=always /dev/stdin file

Yeap. That worked!

>  hlangos <at> pc-hlangos:~/zaurus$ ls -lisa foo
>  958477 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 hlangos hlangos 3072 2010-04-13 12:12 foo
>  hlangos <at> pc-hlangos:~/zaurus$ dd if=/dev/zero bs=1k count=100 | cp --sparse=always /dev/stdin foo
>  100+0 records in
>  100+0 records out
>  102400 bytes (102 kB) copied, 0.0802346 s, 1.3 MB/s
>  hlangos <at> pc-hlangos:~/zaurus$ ls -lisa foo
>  958477 0 -rw-r--r-- 1 hlangos hlangos 102400 2010-04-13 14:06 foo

It doesn't change the target file's inode (and also maintains the existing
hard links).

Cheers
-henrik

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