Update mkdwarfs man page

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Marcus Holland-Moritz 2020-11-29 22:42:10 +01:00
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@ -41,9 +41,10 @@ Most other options are concerned with compression tuning:
some sensible defaults and will depend on which compression libraries
were available at build time. This is meant to be the "easy" interface
to configure compression, and it will actually pick the defaults for
three distinct options: `--block-size-bits`, `--compression` and
`--blockhash-window-sizes`. See the output of `mkdwarfs --help` for a
table listing the exact defaults used for each compression level.
five distinct options: `--block-size-bits`, `--compression`,
`--schema-compression`, `--metadata-compression` and
`--blockhash-window-sizes`. See the output of `mkdwarfs --help` for
a table listing the exact defaults used for each compression level.
* `-S`, `--block-size-bits=`*value*:
The block size used for the compressed filesystem. The actual block size
@ -59,6 +60,13 @@ Most other options are concerned with compression tuning:
to the number of processors available on your system. Use this option if
you want to limit the resources used by `mkdwarfs`.
* `-M`, `--max-scanner-workers=`*value*:
Maximum number of worker threads used for building the filesystem. This
defaults to the number of processors available on your system, but the
number of active workers will be automatically adjusted based on load.
With fast SSDs, scanning multiple files is probably fine, but with older
spinning disks, having less concurrency can improve overall speed.
* `-L`, `--memory-limit=`*value*:
Approximately how much memory you want `mkdwarfs` to use during filesystem
creation. Note that currently this will only affect the block manager
@ -69,12 +77,26 @@ Most other options are concerned with compression tuning:
algorithms.
* `-C`, `--compression=`*algorithm*[:*algopt*[=*value*]]...:
The compression algorithm and configuration used for creating the new
filesystem. The value for this option is a colon-separated list. The
first item is the compression algorithm, the remaining item are its
options. Options can be either boolean or have a value. For details on
which algorithms and options are available, see the output of
`mkdwarfs --help`.
The compression algorithm and configuration used for file system data.
The value for this option is a colon-separated list. The first item is
the compression algorithm, the remaining item are its options. Options
can be either boolean or have a value. For details on which algorithms
and options are available, see the output of `mkdwarfs --help`.
* `--schema-compression=`*algorithm*[:*algopt*[=*value*]]...:
The compression algorithm and configuration used for the metadata schema.
Takes the same arguments as `--compression` above. The schema is *very*
small, in the hundreds of bytes, so this is only relevant for extremely
small file systems. The default (`zstd`) has shown to give considerably
better results than any other algorithms.
* `--metadata-compression=`*algorithm*[:*algopt*[=*value*]]...:
The compression algorithm and configuration used for the metadata.
Takes the same arguments as `--compression` above. The metadata has been
optimized for very little redundancy and leaving it uncompressed, the
default for all levels below 8, has the benefit that it can be mapped
to memory and used directly. This significantly improves mount time for
large file systems compared to e.g. an lzma compressed metadata block.
* `--recompress`:
Take an existing DwarFS filesystem and recompress it using a different
@ -82,14 +104,22 @@ Most other options are concerned with compression tuning:
the `--compression` option, has an impact on the new filesystem. Other
options, e.g. `--block-size-bits`, have no impact.
* `--no-owner`:
Don't store user/group information in the filesystem. This will make
the resulting filesystem smaller. This option implies `--no-time`.
* `--set-owner=`*uid*:
Set the owner for all entities in the file system. This can reduce the
size of the file system. If the input only has a single owner already,
setting this won't make any difference.
* `--no-time`:
Don't store timestamp information in the filesystem.
* `--set-group=`*gid*:
Set the group for all entities in the file system. This can reduce the
size of the file system. If the input only has a single group already,
setting this won't make any difference.
* `--order`=`none`|`path`|`similarity`:
* `--set-time=`*time*|`now`:
Set the time stamps for all entities to this value. This can significantly
reduce the size of the file system. You can pass either a unix time stamp
or `now`.
* `--order=none`|`path`|`similarity`:
The order in which files will be written to the filesystem. Currently,
the choices are `none`, `path` and `similarity`. With `none`, the files
will be stored in the order in which they are discovered. With `path`,
@ -139,6 +169,8 @@ Most other options are concerned with compression tuning:
## TIPS & TRICKS
### Compression Ratio vs Decompression Speed
If high compression ratio is your primary goal, definitely go for lzma
compression. However, I've found that it's only about 10% better than
zstd at the highest level. The big advantage of zstd over lzma is that
@ -146,6 +178,21 @@ its decompression speed is about an order of magnitude faster. So if
you're extensively using the compressed file system, you'll probably
find that it's much faster with zstd.
### Block, Schema and Metadata Compression
DwarFS filesystems consist of three distinct parts of data. Many blocks,
which store actual file data and are decompressed on demand, as well as
one schema and one metadata section. The schema is tiny, typically less
than 1000 bytes, and holds the details for how to interpret the metadata.
The schema needs to be read into memory once and is subsequently never
accessed again. The metadata itself is usually not compressed, although
it can be if you want to squeeze a few more kilobytes out of the file
system. If it is compressed, it will be fully decompressed into memory.
Otherwise, the metadata part of the file will simply be mapped into memory.
The main difference is that compressed metadata, which being smaller, will
potentially consume more memory and it will definitely take longer to
mount the filesystem initially.
## AUTHOR
Written by Marcus Holland-Moritz.