[clug] how to erase a file

[Paul Wayper]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On 02/09/2011 09:25 PM, Eyal Lebedinsky wrote:
> I want to clear a raid mismatch. I already recovered the data and I now need
> to write to each block of a list of files (the original bad ones). This will
> fix the raid mismatch.
> 
> Simply writing to the file does not guaranty that the same blocks will be
> written to in the fs - blocks may be allocated elsewhere.
> 
> If the above correct? Is there a simple way to either write zeroes to a file
> ot even simply read-then-write-back each block? The disk does *not* have i/o
> errors.
> 
> Naturally I can go the long way: delete the files (now all bad blocks are
> unused) then fill the disk with a large file. But I still want to know if
> I can do it quicker. Can debugfs do this?

What are you using for your RAID management?  Because really it should be
handling recovering data, not you.  If you're using md, then what does 'cat
/proc/mdstat' say?

If a file exists, then overwriting it (i.e. seeking to an existing part of the
file and writing) will not move the blocks around.  That's the only way you
can guarantee writing to a particular section of the disk without using
low-level system calls or other great magicks.

If you've got known good copies of the files elsewhere then it may be easier
to blow away the entire RAID structure and restart it from scratch, so that
it's synchronised, and then reload the data - depends on how much is on and
how much is off your RAID.  But really, messing around with the disks
underneath a RAID is like trying to replace a wheel while driving the car -
possible but fraught with peril.

Trust your RAID management and the people who wrote it :-)

Have fun,

Paul
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Fedora - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iEYEARECAAYFAk1ShUkACgkQu7W0U8VsXYI1cQCgkCqJCdlW16DBjjCOnqcPazaJ
IK8AoKJQ08+T1RGfCfinWoktUUf5QgBm
=ZhQx
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----