Shake

What Shake is

Shake is a free userspace defragmenter for GNU/Linux that can reorganize fragmented files while the system is running. It uses heuristics based on file size, last-shake time or change time, access-time patterns, and fragment counts to decide what to process. By default, it skips files larger than 95 MB and files newer than two months; files whose last-shake time or change time is older than eight times 31 days are eligible. Options can change the size thresholds and tolerances. To inspect fragmentation without changing files, use the `--pretend` and `--verbose` options. A sorted list of MP3 files can be piped into Shake to defragment them and place them close together on disk in lexical order. Installation instructions cover Ubuntu/Debian, Gentoo, and Arch Linux, as well as a source build using CMake and libattr development files. Shake uses extended attributes for incremental operation. The author recommends mounting the partition with `user_xattr`; Shake can run without it, but less efficiently. Usage instructions call for root access and recommend running it on an idle whole partition for better results. The project page names Brice Arnould as the author.