[ale] Ubuntu Linux Defrag EXT4

[Pat Regan]

On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:58:58 -0400
Greg Freemyer <greg.freemyer at gmail.com> wrote:

> So if you have a vanilla ext4 setup, you should be fine to run it
> online.  If you have something more exotic like ext4 without a
> journal, then I would personally be very hesitant.

Has anyone mentioned that no one on this list running a ext2/3/4 on
their desktop is likely to see any boost in performance by defragging?

The only ways you're likely to get noticeable fragmentation are running
a very busy mail server or if you run for a long time with your drive
full (and then probably only if you lower the reserved block
percentage).

Since we're talking about ext4 defragmentation...  Does anyone know how
smart that defragger is?  The NTFS defragger than ships with Windows
just packs all the files right up against each other at the front of the
drive (at least it used to).  That's pretty brain dead because as soon
as you append to any of those files you immediately start getting more
fragmented again.

Pat