Is it safe to interrupt (Ctrl-C) a long running xfs_fsr
job?
I'm attempting to defragment a very large XFS volume.
Like all filesystem manipulation tools, xfs_fsr
takes care of leaving the filesystem in a consistent state, in case the machine crashes (due to a power failure, for example). Unless you're unlucky and encounter a bug, that is — filesystem drivers are more complex than they look, especially as they are written for speed.
If you interrupt xfs_fsr
cleanly (with any of the usual signals SIGINT, SIGHUP, SIGTERM or SIGQUIT), it takes care to write where it left off in /var/tmp/.fsrlast
(or the file indicated with the -f
option). So you can safely interrupt it with Ctrl+C, and restart it again with the same options later to complete the job.