this post was submitted on 17 May 2026
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I'll be away for a while, but I'll get some stats, because now I'm also curious.
No problem, take your time. Feel free to comment on here, or in private, whatever you’re comfortable with.
Turns out that you have to explicitly mount btrfs with the option compress=zstd (or compress=lzo as you prefer) to get any compression done, and I was not doing that. Also, to apply compression to existing data, you have to defragment with compression enabled. Alternatively, you can create a subvolume and set the compression property.
This explains it quite well.
It’s nice to have you back! Thanks for letting me know! I’m glad my curiosity triggered you to discover this thing. Net positive for both of us! :)