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From: fnf@estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: sparse files
Message-ID: <242@estinc.UUCP>
Date: 9 Dec 89 21:01:51 GMT
References: <21581@adm.BRL.MIL> <235@dg.dg.com>
Reply-To: fnf@estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish)
Organization: Enhanced Software Technologies, Inc.
Lines: 23

In article <235@dg.dg.com> uunet!dg!rec (Robert Cousins) writes:
>In article <21581@adm.BRL.MIL> JAZBO@brownvm.brown.edu (James H. Coombs) writes:
>>Can someone explain exactly what a sparse file is?  How does one get created?
>
>A sparse file is one which has "holes" in it.  Specifically, the amount of 
>space required to store the file on disk is less than the length of the
>file (offset of the last byte).  A sparse file can be created under UNIX
>by creating a file and then simply choosing not to write some portions
>of the file.  The following program creates a sparse file:

[program deleted]

This is about the 2nd or 3rd posting I've seen with a sample program to
create sparse files.  You guys are working too hard!  :-)

Try:

	echo "This is a sparse file." | dd of=sparsefile seek=1000 bs=1k

-Fred
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