Re: [patch] -sparse predicate

[James Youngman]

On 11/9/06, dean gaudet <address@hidden> wrote:
> this patch adds a -sparse predicate which is true iff the object is a file
> and the size is greater than the number of blocks * blocksize can
> represent.

I have implemented this feature in the CVS code for findutils 4.3.x.
The original idea is yours but I implemented the functionality rather
differently.

I extended the idea on the basis that sparseness is relative.  You can
think of it as the ratio between the amount of disk space occupied by
the file and the logical length of the file.  So files can have a
sparseness > 1 (being sparse in the normal sense of the word) or less
than one (because there is additional space wasted due to block sizes
and indirect blocks).

I've added you to the THANKS file but didn't actually apply your patch
since I decided to implement the idea rather differently.  However,
thanks for the productive suggestion!

Best wishes,
James.