Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pacbell!att-ih!ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!ccvaxa!aglew
From: aglew@ccvaxa.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Compressing unix disks
Message-ID: <29500023@ccvaxa>
Date: 11 Mar 88 02:56:00 GMT
References: <305@marconi.SW.MCC.COM>
Lines: 13
Nf-ID: #R:marconi.SW.MCC.COM:305:ccvaxa:29500023:000:729
Nf-From: ccvaxa.UUCP!aglew    Mar 10 20:56:00 1988


>For the benefit of the poster of the original question: BSD 4.2's fast file
>system uses a disk management scheme that keeps disk transfer rates near
>constant over time (not sensitive to fragmentation through use). 4.2 BSD's
>throughput rates are dependent, instead, on the total amount of free space,
>which must not be allowed to drop below a certain threshold. 
>
>-Mike Marshall         hubcap@hubcap.clemson.edu         ...!hubcap!hubcap

Disk thruput maybe, file thruput no. Lots of activity on a nearly full
disk can result in a file spread across several cylinders, because there 
wasn't room on a single cylinder when it was created, although there may 
be now.
    Perhaps the term "fragmentation" is inappropriate.