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792fdbbb13
The kernel has not required a 16 MiB limit on dedupe requests since
v4.18-rc1 b67287682688 ("Btrfs: dedupe_file_range ioctl: remove 16MiB
restriction").
Kernels before v4.18 would truncate the request and return the size
actually deduped in `bytes_deduped`. Kernel v4.18 and later will loop
in the kernel until the entire request is satisfied (although still
in 16 MiB chunks, so larger extents will be split).
Modify the loop in userspace to measure the size the kernel actually
deduped, instead of assuming the kernel will only accept 16 MiB.
On current kernels this will always loop exactly once.
Since we now rely on `bytes_deduped`, make sure it has a sane value.
Signed-off-by: Zygo Blaxell <bees@furryterror.org>
BEES
Best-Effort Extent-Same, a btrfs deduplication agent.
About bees
bees is a block-oriented userspace deduplication agent designed for large btrfs filesystems. It is an offline dedupe combined with an incremental data scan capability to minimize time data spends on disk from write to dedupe.
Strengths
- Space-efficient hash table and matching algorithms - can use as little as 1 GB hash table per 10 TB unique data (0.1GB/TB)
- Daemon incrementally dedupes new data using btrfs tree search
- Works with btrfs compression - dedupe any combination of compressed and uncompressed files
- Works around btrfs filesystem structure to free more disk space
- Persistent hash table for rapid restart after shutdown
- Whole-filesystem dedupe - including snapshots
- Constant hash table size - no increased RAM usage if data set becomes larger
- Works on live data - no scheduled downtime required
- Automatic self-throttling based on system load
Weaknesses
- Whole-filesystem dedupe - has no include/exclude filters, does not accept file lists
- Requires root privilege (or
CAP_SYS_ADMIN) - First run may require temporary disk space for extent reorganization
- First run may increase metadata space usage if many snapshots exist
- Constant hash table size - no decreased RAM usage if data set becomes smaller
- btrfs only
Installation and Usage
Recommended Reading
- bees Gotchas
- btrfs kernel bugs - especially DATA CORRUPTION WARNING
- bees vs. other btrfs features
- What to do when something goes wrong
More Information
Bug Reports and Contributions
Email bug reports and patches to Zygo Blaxell bees@furryterror.org.
You can also use Github:
https://github.com/Zygo/bees
Copyright & License
Copyright 2015-2023 Zygo Blaxell bees@furryterror.org.
GPL (version 3 or later).