fpart - Man Page

The fpart utility helps you sort file trees and pack them into bags (called "partitions").

-h

Print help

-V

Print version

-n num

Create exactly num partitions and try to generate partitions with the same size and number of files. This option cannot be used in conjunction with -f, -s or -L.

-f files

Create partitions containing at most files files or directories. This option can be used in conjunction with -s and -L.

-s size

Create partitions with a maximum size of size bytes. With this option, a special partition 0 may be used to handle files that do not fit in a regular partition, given the provided size limit. This option can be used in conjunction with -f and -L. You can use a human-friendly unit suffix here (k, m, g, t, p).

-i infile

Read file list from infile. If infile is “-”, then list is read from stdin.

-a

Input contains arbitrary values; just sort them (do not crawl filesystem). Input must follow the “size(blank)path” scheme. This option is incompatible with crawling-related options.

-o outfile

Output partitions' contents to outfile template. Multiple files will be generated given that template. Each outfile will get partition number as a suffix. If outfile is “-”, then partitions will be printed to stdout, with partition number used as a prefix (so you can grep partitions you are interested in, or do whatever you want).

-0

End filenames with a null (’\0’) character when using option -o.

-e

When adding directories (see Directory Handling ), add an ending “/” to each directory entry.

-v

Verbose mode (may be specified more than once).

-l

Follow symbolic links (default: do not follow).

-b

Do not cross filesystem boundaries (default: cross).

-y pattern

Include files or directories matching pattern only (and discard all other files). This option may be specified several times. Pattern may be a leaf (file or directory) name or a specific path. Shell pattern matching characters (“[”, “]”, “*”, “?”) may be used. Include patterns are ignored when computing size of directories.

-Y pattern

Same as -y but case insensitive. This option may not be available on your platform (at least FreeBSD and GNU/Linux support it, Solaris does not).

-x pattern

Exclude files or directories matching pattern. This option can be used in conjunction with -y and -Y. In this case, exclusion is performed after. This option may be specified several times. Pattern may be a leaf (file or directory) name or a specific path. Shell pattern matching characters (“[”, “]”, “*”, “?”) may be used. Exclude patterns also apply when computing size of directories.

-X pattern

Same as -x but case insensitive. This option may not be available on your platform (at least FreeBSD and GNU/Linux support it, Solaris does not).

-z

Pack empty directories. By default, fpart will pack files only (except when using the -d or -D options). This option can be useful for tools such as rsync(1) to be able to recreate a full file tree when used with fpart (e.g. using rsync's --files-from option). See the -zz option to also pack un-readable directories.

-zz

Treat un-readable or erroneous (partly-read) directories as empty, causing them to be packed anyway. Partly-read (non-empty) directories can end up being packed while some of their children have already been packed.

-zzz

Pack all directories (as empty). Useful when 3rd party tools need directory entries to update them (e.g. cpio or tar).

-Z

Pack un-readable/erroneous directories in dedicated partitions. This option helps isolating erroneous parts of a filesystem. Used in conjuction with FPART_PARTERRNO variable, hooks can try to handle or work around the error. Requires live mode (option -L) and option -zz ( or -zzz)

-d depth

After a certain depth, pack directories instead of files (directories themselves will be added to partitions, instead of their content). You can force a specific file to be packed anyway by listing it on the command line explicitly.

-D

Implies -z. Pack leaf directories: if a directory contains files only, it will be packed as a single entry. You can force a specific file to be packed anyway by listing it on the command line explicitly.

-E

Implies -D. Pack directories only (work on a per-directory basis): in that mode, no file will be packed. Instead, each directory will be packed as a single entry with a size being the sum of all top-level files' sizes. You can force a specific file to be packed anyway by listing it on the command line explicitly.

-L

Live mode (default: disabled). When using this mode, partitions will be generated while crawling filesystem. This option saves time and memory but will never produce special partition 0 (see options -s and -S ). As a consequence, it will generate partitions slightly larger than the size specified with option -s. This option can be used in conjunction with options -f and -s, but not with option -n.

-S

Skip big files (default: disabled). In live mode, no special partition 0 can be produced and big files are added to the current partition as they are found while crawling the filesystem. That can lead to huge partitions. That option makes fpart skip files bigger than the specified maximum partition size (option -s ) and print them to stdout (even when using option -o ) as belonging to a pseudo-partition S (as in 'S'kipped). It allows a consumer to handle them immediately through a separate process (no fpart hook will be executed for skipped files). That option can only be used in Live mode (option -L ), when a maximum partition size has been given (option -s ).

-w cmd

When using live mode, execute cmd when starting a new partition (before having opened next output file, if any). cmd is run in a specific environment that provides several variables describing the state of the program: FPART_HOOKTYPE ("pre-part" or "post-part"), FPART_PARTFILENAME (current partition's output file name), FPART_PARTNUMBER (current partition number), FPART_PARTSIZE (current partition size), FPART_PARTNUMFILES (number of files in current partition), FPART_PARTERRNO (0 if every single partition's entry has been read without error, else last erroneous entry's errno. For error detection to work properly, you may need to rebuild fpart using embedded fts library, depending on the version shipped with your OS), FPART_PID (PID of fpart). Note that variables may or may not be defined, depending on requested options and current partition's state when the hook is triggered. Also, note that hooks are executed in a synchronous way while crawling filesystem, so 1) avoid executing commands that take a long time to return as it slows down filesystem crawling and 2) do not presume cwd (PWD) is the one fpart has been started in, as it is regularly changed to speed up crawling (use absolute paths within hooks).

-W cmd

Same as -w, but executes cmd when finishing a partition (after having closed last output file, if any).

-p num

Preload each partition with num bytes. You can use a human-friendly unit suffix here (k, m, g, t, p).

-q num

Overload each file size with num bytes. You can use a human-friendly unit suffix here (k, m, g, t, p).

-r num

Round each file size up to next num bytes multiple. This option can be used in conjunction with overloading, which is done *before* rounding. You can use a human-friendly unit suffix here (k, m, g, t, p).

Here are some examples:

fpart -n 3 -o var-parts /var

Produce 3 partitions, with (hopefully) the same size and number of files. Three files: var-parts.1, var-parts.2 and var-parts.3 are generated as output.

fpart -s 4724464025 -o music-parts /path/to/music ./*.mp3

Produce partitions of 4.4 GB, containing music files from /path/to/music as well as MP3 files from current directory; with such a partition size, each partition content will be ready to be burnt to a DVD. Files music-parts.0 to music-parts.n, are generated as output.

find /usr ! -type d | fpart -f 10000 -i - /home | grep '^1 '

Produce partitions containing 10000 files each by examining /usr first and then /home and display only partition 1 on stdout.

du * | fpart -n 2 -a

Produce two partitions by using du(1) output. Fpart will not examine the file system but instead use arbitrary values printed by du(1) and sort them.

du(1), find(1), fpsync(1), grep(1), rsync(1)

Fpart has been written by Ganaël LAPLANCHE and is available under the BSD license on http://contribs.martymac.org

No bug known (yet).

fpsync(1).