[clug] duplicate a file system to a smaller hard disk

[Brendan Jurd]

2009/8/11 David Tulloh <david at tulloh.id.au>:
> I have resized reiserfs partitions in the past (made the partition bigger).
>  I believe you can also resize ext2 and ext3 by converting it to ext2.  I'm
> not sure about the others.
>

You can resize ext2/3 partitions using the resize2fs tool.

Don't be fooled by the name, it works for both ext2 and ext3.  There's
no need for "converting it to ext2".

ext3 has the added bonus that you can enlarge a filesystem while it is
still mounted.  I believe that to shrink a filesystem it must be
unmounted.

jfs can also be resized while on-line.  You just make more space
available on the device and remount it using the -o remount,resize
options, and it automatically claims the additional space!  It happens
near-instantaneously too.

Cheers,
BJ