sparse files

[Michael Hipp]

Mike Reinehr wrote:
> I've been so fixated on learning why tar wouldn't work, that until today, 
> haven't looked for any alternatives. Finally, just now I googled only for 
> 'Linux & sparse' and guess what popped up -- the cp command! Here's the 
> relevant parts from `info cp`:
> 
> --sparse=WHEN'
>       A "sparse file" contains "holes"--a sequence of zero bytes that
>       does not occupy any physical disk blocks; the `read' system call
>       reads these as zeroes.  This can both save considerable disk space
>       and increase speed, since many binary files contain lots of
>       consecutive zero bytes.  By default, `cp' detects holes in input
>       source files via a crude heuristic and makes the corresponding
>       output file sparse as well.  Only regular files may be sparse.

This is another example of why I like this list so much - by casually 
following a thread that held no interest whatsoever for me, I learned 
about something of which I was utterly ignorant. Thank you.

Michael