2011-10-20, 14:56(+00), Stephane CHAZELAS: [...] > On extent based FS (ext4, btrfs...), there might be a way to > guarantee as few extents as possible, but I don't know it. Actually, with both ext4 and btrfs, it is possible to defrag a file in place. So you could un-sparse the file first: make sure it is not being used otherwise and: cat < old.img 1<> old.img or pv < old.img 1<> old.img to get a progress bar. and defrag it: e4defrag -v old.img btrfs filesystem defragment -v old.img (not tested). -- Stephane -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kvm" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html