Re: shrink reiserfs

[David Masover <ninja@slaphack.com>]

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Jake Hawkes wrote:
[...]
| My next question, can I grow a reiserfs filesystem backwards in the
| partition?

Don't think so, but I wouldn't know.

[...]
| If not, then I'm kinda stuck with a spotty partition table and I'g going
| to have pull the drive and start hauling around disk images and stuff,
| which I'd like to avoid.

How full is the fs?  If less than half-full, you could try this (for
example):

| free space | reiserfs partition |

shrink fs and partition to less than half:

| free space | reiser | free spac |

make new partition to the "right" of old partition:

| free space | reiser | new parti |

dd from reiserfs to new partition:

| free space | reiser | reiserfs  |

delete old reiserfs partition:

| free space          | reiserfs  |

make new partition

| new partition       | reiserfs  |

dd old reiserfs to new partition

| reiserfs partition  | reiserfs  |

delete old partition, expand new partition and fs

| reiserfs partition              |




This could clearly be much easier to follow, but it illustrates two points:

- - If your disk is not full, you can almost always get from your current
partition scheme to any new one without completely backing up /
reformatting (no pulling the drive, no installing a new backup drive, etc.)

- - Sometimes, the workaround for a missing feature literally takes more
time than writing the feature or buying new hardware.

Disclaimer:  this may not be such a time, and my comments may just stem
from my wish that reiser4 had a repacker and online
resizer/shrinker/grow-forward/backward feature.
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