[SWLUG] Defrag and dir /p equivilents

[Dave Cridland]

On Wed Feb 22 21:31:20 2006, Stephen wrote:
> 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........
> 
> 
ls | more

Or:

ls | less.

Or:

ls | ${PAGER}

Or Shift+PageUp for the text console and, I think, most common X 
terminals.


> 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.
> 
> 
Linux doesn't need to defrag at all. Some filesystems, on the other 
hand, may need to.

For Ext2 (and therefore Ext3), then the only reason you're likely to 
need to defrag is if the filesystem is running nearly full, with a 
large amount of churn, for an extended period, and filesystem 
performance is critical to you.

For most people, disk space isn't that much of a squeeze, so it's 
unlikely to have much fragmentation to begin with. I've never 
defragmented any Ext2 filesystem, and never felt I was missing out. 
:-)

Dave.
-- 
           You see things; and you say "Why?"
   But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?"
    - George Bernard Shaw