[G4] defraging a Mac

[Alex]

On Sunday, Apr 4, 2004, at 09:59 Canada/Eastern, sr ferenczy wrote:

> [...] i cant say whether files and their (up to 4) forks [...]

   "[...] In Macintosh system software, a _file_ is a named, ordered 
sequence of
    bytes stored on a volume and divided into two forks, the data fork 
and
    the resource fork. [...]" From "Inside Macintosh: Files".

Two, not four or three.

> [...] i do know that many os x defragging tools do NOT worry about 
> keeping individual forks contiguous with the entire file, rather they 
> only keep forks contiguous with themselves.

That's a new one for me -- but I'm always keen to learn new stuff. 
Could you provide more details?

> [...] in the same way hfs+ had big issues when it came on the scene 
> for macs, but with its current state on 10.3, it even self-defrags 
> files up to 25? KB.... much better than any other desktop option out 
> there.

Yes, Panther does adaptive hot file clustering (cool!). But can you 
answer me this. Is HFS+, as implemented under Panther, the first 
desktop OS to do this type of clustering? Is its algorithm superior to 
other FSs which do adaptive clustering? And on what criteria did you 
decide HFS+ is better than, say, ext3 or ReiserFS?

But this whole discussion is about a bogus issue, driven chiefly by the 
"mine is bigger than yours" syndrome. (Or perhaps not bogus, but 
certainly of interest chiefly to geeks who eat OS specs for breakfast.) 
It's not the file system that really counts, it's a combination of 
features, FS included.

So what if HFS+ is inferior to, say, ReiserFS (assuming there are truly 
objective criteria that would allow us to make such a determination). 
Would that mean Linux is a better choice for you than Mac OS X? Not 
every feature of Mac OS X is superior to comparable features on 
competitive platforms (Windows and Linux), and Mac OS X isn't a better 
choice in every circumstance or for every user. (Only a basic inner 
insecurity drives certain fellows to proclaim otherwise.) But it 
provides a combination of features which make it an excellent choice in 
many circumstance. It's the best OS for my needs (though, for instance, 
not for my wife's), and, presumably, for the needs of everybody else on 
this list -- so can we move on now?

(I take the liberty to suggest, for HFS+ details, Apple Tech Note 
TN1150, updated last month to include Panther implementation 
<http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1150.html>, and, for a 
balanced and intelligent perspective on OS X -- IMHO, of course -- Amit 
Singh's article "What Is Mac OS X?" at 
<http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/osx/>. Try reading at least the 
conclusion.)

f