Deduplication in APFS ?

Question

Drago76 Author

Level 1

20 points

Deduplication in APFS ?

Hello!

i have some duplicate files on my macbook now ( sshd / hfs+ / macos sierra).

i plan do fresh install to high sierra, when 10.13.1 releases - i plan

to reformat my sshd to APFS, make a fresh high sierra install, and then copy all my files back to new disk.

in that case, what is APFS behaviour with same files?

it authomatically do deduplication, and physically i have only one file of each version, with symlinks, or no?

also interesting, how i can in that way import my current Photos and iTunes content

thanks in advance!

MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.6), MBP 2012 mid, 13", 1Tb seagate SSHD

Posted on Oct 2, 2017 11:00 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Oct 3, 2017 11:43 AM in response to Drago76

Does Apple File System support data deduplication?

No. With Apple File System individual extents can be encrypted, making it impossible to examine and deduplicate files and their content. Apple File System uses clone files to minimize data storage and data duplication.

Reply

Answer 2

Drago76 Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 5, 2017 12:57 PM in response to leroydouglas

Then, what is usage cases, and idea for that "clone files"? :-O

make clone files manually instead of just copy?

deduplication may be excellent automatic feature, who save alot of space on disc.

and there i no see problems with encrypting - in case of individual content who have duplicate, got encrypted, there may be appear user warning about that, or so on.

cant see really usefulness of "clone files"... :\

Reply

Answer 3

Macbrush

Level 1

38 points

Oct 10, 2017 1:34 AM in response to Drago76

I am afraid APFS doesn't do deduplication. It will save you space when you duplicate a file by creating a hard link though. Real deduplication uses database to keep track of files and can work across partitions, even across physical/logical drives.

Reply