The length and offset arguments may be followed by the
multiplicative suffixes KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on
for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB, and YiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g.,
"K" has the same meaning as "KiB") or the suffixes KB (=1000), MB
(=1000*1000), and so on for GB, TB, PB, EB, ZB, and YB.
The options --collapse-range, --dig-holes, --punch-hole, and
--zero-range are mutually exclusive.
-c, --collapse-range
Removes a byte range from a file, without leaving a hole. The
byte range to be collapsed starts at offset and continues for
length bytes. At the completion of the operation, the
contents of the file starting at the location offset+length
will be appended at the location offset, and the file will be
length bytes smaller. The option --keep-size may not be
specified for the collapse-range operation.
Available since Linux 3.15 for ext4 (only for extent-based
files) and XFS.
A filesystem may place limitations on the granularity of the
operation, in order to ensure efficient implementation.
Typically, offset and len must be a multiple of the
filesystem logical block size, which varies according to the
filesystem type and configuration. If a filesystem has such a
requirement, the operation will fail with the error EINVAL if
this requirement is violated.
-d, --dig-holes
Detect and dig holes. This makes the file sparse in-place,
without using extra disk space. The minimum size of the hole
depends on filesystem I/O block size (usually 4096 bytes).
Also, when using this option, --keep-size is implied. If no
range is specified by --offset and --length, then the entire
file is analyzed for holes.
You can think of this option as doing a "cp --sparse" and
then renaming the destination file to the original, without
the need for extra disk space.
See --punch-hole for a list of supported filesystems.
-i, --insert-range
Insert a hole of length bytes from offset, shifting existing
data.
-l, --length length
Specifies the length of the range, in bytes.
-n, --keep-size
Do not modify the apparent length of the file. This may
effectively allocate blocks past EOF, which can be removed
with a truncate.
-o, --offset offset
Specifies the beginning offset of the range, in bytes.
-p, --punch-hole
Deallocates space (i.e., creates a hole) in the byte range
starting at offset and continuing for length bytes. Within
the specified range, partial filesystem blocks are zeroed,
and whole filesystem blocks are removed from the file. After
a successful call, subsequent reads from this range will
return zeroes. This option may not be specified at the same
time as the --zero-range option. Also, when using this
option, --keep-size is implied.
Supported for XFS (since Linux 2.6.38), ext4 (since Linux
3.0), Btrfs (since Linux 3.7), tmpfs (since Linux 3.5) and
gfs2 (since Linux 4.16).
-v, --verbose
Enable verbose mode.
-x, --posix
Enable POSIX operation mode. In that mode allocation
operation always completes, but it may take longer time when
fast allocation is not supported by the underlying
filesystem.
-z, --zero-range
Zeroes space in the byte range starting at offset and
continuing for length bytes. Within the specified range,
blocks are preallocated for the regions that span the holes
in the file. After a successful call, subsequent reads from
this range will return zeroes.
Zeroing is done within the filesystem preferably by
converting the range into unwritten extents. This approach
means that the specified range will not be physically zeroed
out on the device (except for partial blocks at the either
end of the range), and I/O is (otherwise) required only to
update metadata.
Option --keep-size can be specified to prevent file length
modification.
Available since Linux 3.14 for ext4 (only for extent-based
files) and XFS.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
