Unix administration - Re: sparse files

Author

Re: sparse files

Stephane CHAZELAS

2004-10-18, 7:50 am

2004-10-16, 02:05(+00), Ivan Rayner:
[...]
> IRIX cp has known how to replicate holes since 1997.

Using which API?

> It seems like
> such an obvious thing to do that I'd be surprised if other UNIXes
> didn't. I just tried it on Linux and that also replicates holes, at
> least on XFS.
[...]

That would be very surprising given that GNU cp (at least from
coreutils 5.2.1) has no code for that. All it does is create as
many holes as possible in the destination file if it's a regular
file.

--
Stephane