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Quickstart

You are encouraged to read the rest of the manual too, but this page should keep you out of the worst trouble.

Things not to compress

Don't try to compress swap files, kernel images to be loaded with LILO, or files on which you mount a loop device (with losetup). All of these subsystems (swap, loop driver, LILO) access the disk blocks straight from the device rather than going through the filesystem. Other bootloaders, such as grub, are almost certainly the same, though I haven't checked.

Programs to avoid

Don't use a defragmenter other than the special e2compr version of e2defrag. Don't use dump-like backup programs that read from the device rather than going through the filesystem. See section E2compr interactions with other packages.

How do I install e2compr?

See section Installation instructions for e2compr-0.4.x. Main things to look out for are to check for any `.rej' files from patch, and that you have an appropriate version of e2fsck.

Remember...

This manual contains lots more useful information. If you have any trouble, or are wondering how to do something, then this manual is a good place to start.

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