Arch Linux

zomzilla

Member

Registered: 2011-06-12

Posts: 40

[solved] Testing btrfs compress option

Hi all,

I installed arch on a new computer, and decided I would try out btrfs; particularly as I've seen using the compress=Lzo option to greatly improve performance under certain circumstances

So I used the remounting technique after assigning the partitions, and added the option to fstab.

How can I check to see if files are being compressed? I am just paranoid that the option isn't being used I guess xD

Also looking for any other filesystem related tips and tricks as this computer has a pretty abysmal HDD relative to the other components.

Ta!

Zom

Last edited by zomzilla (2012-04-02 17:09:48)

Azeem

Member

Registered: 2009-07-25

Posts: 4

Re: [solved] Testing btrfs compress option

When using the compress mount option, there's usually a message in dmesg with btrfs recognizing that compression is enabled.

I guess one way to confirm compression is enabled is to do something like

dd if=/dev/zero of=file bs=1M count=1024
btrfs fi sync /btrfsmountpoint
du -h file

then check the file size.

Also, I think it should be lzo and not Lzo. I'm not sure if it's case sensitive. And AFAIK lzo is now default compression algorithm in btrfs, so =lzo shouldn't be needed. Furthermore, if your HDD is REALLY abysmal as you say, you can try using zlib instead of lzo as it has higher compression

zomzilla

Member

Registered: 2011-06-12

Posts: 40

Re: [solved] Testing btrfs compress option

thanks so much; no one could help me with this

for future use; check Dmesg for the line saying: use lzo compression

thanks you kindly sir