Ubuntu Manpage: fpart — Sort and pack files into partitions

NAME

     fpart — Sort and pack files into partitions

SYNOPSIS

     fpart [-h] [-V] -n num | -f files | -s size [-i infile] [-a] [-o outfile] [-0] [-e] [-v]
           [-l] [-b] [-y pattern] [-Y pattern] [-x pattern] [-X pattern] [-z] [-zz] [-zzz] [-Z]
           [-d depth] [-D] [-E] [-L] [-S] [-w cmd] [-W cmd] [-p num] [-q num] [-r num]
           [FILE or DIR...]

DESCRIPTION

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

GENERAL OPTIONS

     -h      Print help

     -V      Print version

PARTITION CONTROL

     -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).

INPUT CONTROL

     -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.

OUTPUT CONTROL

     -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).

FILESYSTEM CRAWLING CONTROL

     -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).

DIRECTORY HANDLING

-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.

LIVE MODE

-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).

SIZE HANDLING

     -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).

EXAMPLES

     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.

AUTHOR, AVAILABILITY

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

BUGS

     No bug known (yet).