Re: universal filesystem convertor

[Andrew Clausen]

On Tue, Jan 08, 2002 at 10:04:30PM +0300, Serguei Tzukanov wrote:
> There is a small tool which can convert filesystems without data backup.
> The idea is to use sparse files support of primary filesystem. We create 
> a sparse image of block device, mkfs secondary filesystem on it, mount 
> it, mv files from primary filesystem to mounted image and then map image 
> to the device.
> 
> The tool and a bit more info are at http://tzukanov.narod.ru/convertfs/.

Yep, nice idea :)  It will run into problems in low free space.
(free space must be > largest file, right).

Also, your convertfs can also be used as a resizer, right?

I guess it's all rather slow, but nice none-the-less :)
You might also be interested in Partition Surprise (google it!)

Ralf Bächle told me he thought there might be problems with using
loopback like this... I guess it's working ok?

Thanks for telling me about it!
Andrew