Option to output to different path about pishrink HOT 4 CLOSED

If the path is on another hard drive then it will read from the one the write it to the other. For example pishrink.sh /home/me/saved.img /mnt/external/shrunk.img will copy it and do the work on the other drive. It does copy the entire file then work on it, but there is not a good way to avoid that sadly.

Does that answer your question?

from pishrink.

Thanks for your answer, but my question remains open.

I understand the original syntax (which I tried, of course).
But as you describe, the file ist copied first, than worked on.
The copy-process is ok, but the working process not, as it needs a lot simulataneous read/write operations, thus putting the target drive under a lot of stress.
In regards to hard drive life, it would be much better if one drive only reads and the other only writes...
But if the linux tools used in your script need to work on the file directly, than there probably is no way around this.

(Ramdisk is (not yet) an option, as I'm using 16GB SD-Cards in my Raspis and even on my main PC I only have 16 GB RAM...)

from pishrink.

The primary tool used by pishrink is resize2fs. This tool resizes a filesystem in place but there is no way to separate reads and writes on different devices with this tool. In fact it's possible to write a tool which does exactly what you want. But I don't know of this kind of tool.

Your idea to use a ramdisk sounds to be an alternate way to shrink a filesystem in memory.

But frankly: If you use a ssd or plain old disk - I don't see any stress issue. There is indeed some stress issue with a SD card so whenever you have to resize an image use some kind of disk instead of sd card and you're fine.

from pishrink.

Ok, I understand and it is ok then.

from pishrink.