Short:        *tries* to defragment PFS2 partitions (37.3)
Author:       steigerw@stud.uni-frankfurt.de (Martin Steigerwald)
Uploader:     steigerw stud uni-frankfurt de (Martin Steigerwald)
Type:         disk/optim
Architecture: m68k-amigaos

$VER: PFS2DefragTry.readme 37.3 (16.10.98) (C) by Martin Steigerwald

ABOUT

*Tries* to defragment PFS2 partitions by recopying all fragmented files.
Will run diskvalid in analyse mode to get a list of the fragmented
files.


DISCLAIMER

I REJECT ANY RESPONSIBILITIES IF YOU LOOSE YOUR DATA.

* NO WARRANTIES * NO WARRANTIES * NO WARRANTIES * NO WARRANTIES *

So, I hope this is clear now. ;-) Sorry, but I had to do this.


DISTRIBUTION

It is Freeware. Copyright (C) 1996-1998 by Martin Steigerwald.

You may distribute this thing as long as you distribute this readme file
with it. And as long as you do this in a non-comercial way. So dont charge
more than a nonimal fee for media costs for it!


REQUIREMENTS

AmigaOS2.0+
PFS2. It also works on AFS, but I really recommended to update to PFS2!


USAGE

Usage is simple.

PFS2DefragTry DEVICE/A,TEMPDIR,BUFLEN/N

As you can see only one argument is needed. And this is the device you
want to defragment!

With TEMPDIR you can specify where PFS2DefragTry should copy the files
file by file in order to let PFS2 defragment them. If you do not
specify it files will be copied into DEVICE/A:. I recommend pointing
TEMPDIR to an other partition than the one being defragmented.

TEMPDIR must have enough space to hold the biggest file to defragment. To
find it out exactly try diskvalid DEVICE/A ANALYSE, look which files have
been fragmented, and look which one is the largest of them. It is always
save to just leave as much space in tempdir that the largest file of the
complete partition will fit into there.

Files will be copied one by one. So one file will be copied. Then deleted.
Then either renamed to its original name if your tempdir is on the same
device that should be defragmented or copied back to its original place.

If there is not enough space, you get get AmigaDOS requesters. No extra
space checking is done! Anyway files that are to big will simply not
defragmented. Nothing else will happen. But you have to click that
requesters away.

The more free space you have on the partition to defragment the better the
chance to get a successful defragmentation. PFS2DefragTry ONLY tries do
use PFS2 to defragment files. It does not defragment the free space on a
device.

Note: Currently all files that PFS2DefragTry copies to defragment them
will be set to the actual date! This is due to my own copying routine
which simply uses AmigaDOS Read() and Write(). C:Copy doesn't like
filenames with wildcards in it so I could not use it.

Maybe future versions will take care of the date stamps of the files. I
don't need this, so it may only be implemented when someone ask me to do
it.

The last parameter specifies the buffer size in bytes the copy routine
will use! Default value is 65536. I recommend to set this to 1048576
- 1 MB - or even more in order to avoid unnecessary hard disk head
movements at least when TEMPDIR is on the same hard disc than the
partition that is defragmented.

Some words about efficiency: It works fairly good, but it does not always
be successful. Running it several times will most likely give better
results than running it once.

When you have question or suggestion don't hesitate to email me.


HISTORY

16.10.98

PFS2Defragtry 37.3
    changed name from afsdefragtry to PFS2DefragTry for obvious reasons
    updated documentation a bit and removed some bla bla from it
    changed format of history
    removed BETA status from it

30.6.98

afsdefragtry 37.2 BETA
    increased buffersize for filenames to 1024
    tempfile will now always be called "---afsdefragtry.tmp---"
        in order to avoid that one file is accidentally over-
        written (i.e. if disk.info is defragmented with tempdir:
        dh0: dh0:disk.info would have been overwritten before)

23.6.96

afsdefragtry 37.1 BETA
    added linefeed to text "remove delete protection failed!"

21.6.96

afsdefragtry 37.0 BETA
    first public *BETA* release


THANKS GO TO

Simon Dick for the idea.

Mark Harden for his work on the AFS FAQ and the support Fourth Level
Developments should actually do.

Michiel Pelt for PFS2!

Wouter van Oortmerssen for Amiga E


AUTHOR

Martin Steigerwald
steigerw@stud.uni-frankfurt.de
http://home.pages.de/~helios