[SWLUG] Defrag and dir /p equivilents

[Stephen]

Dear All

Greetings and I hope all are well.

For the first time my Mandriva crashed and I had to boot a basic version 
from the installation cd and move key user files to a flash disk.  Along 
the way I had to negotiate the file system and at one stage I was in a 
directory that had so many files and folders in it that an "ls" command 
returned too may for one screen.  The screen was not scrollable.  Is 
there an equivalent to dos' "dir /p" or "dir /w" commands.  I tried the 
help/man but it said nothing about it.  This site was very informative 
as well but implies that what I want to do cannot be done. 
http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/cmd.csp?path=l/ls
I assume the answer is to write the output to a newly created/existing 
text file and read it in an editor.  Too cumbersome........

Is there any defrag tool in Linux and if so what is it.  I am using 
Mandriva 2006.  Is there any need to defrag.  Much controversy on the 
web.  Any direct experiences you care to share.

Thanks

Stephen Constantinou