Defragger vs xfs_fsr

Defragger is a graphical Linux tool for examining and defragmenting filesystems, with a map showing file, free-space, and metadata allocation. Its analysis identifies fragmentation and displays filesystem blocks in an adaptive map. The project supports online defragmentation of ext4 and offline defragmentation and compaction of FAT16 and FAT32. FAT12 and exFAT can be analyzed, but not modified. A command-line interface can list, analyze, defragment, and compact volumes. The interface and command-line program run without elevated privileges; operations that need them use a PolicyKit-authorized helper over D-Bus. The stated environment is Linux with Qt 6 and KDE Kirigami; privileged mode also requires systemd, PolicyKit, and an active graphical PolicyKit agent. For ext4, Defragger uses Linux filesystem ioctls directly rather than calling e4defrag or filefrag. The project labels the software alpha, recommends backing up important data, and says ext4 has received the most testing. FAT write support is newer, so it recommends beginning with disposable or fully backed-up volumes. The software is dual-licensed under MIT or Apache License 2.0.

xfs_fsr is a free Linux utility in the xfsprogs project that reorganizes mounted XFS filesystems one file at a time. It copies a target file to temporary storage, then atomically exchanges the data extents of the original and temporary files. With no arguments, it chooses files with the largest extent counts and attempts the top 10% on each pass. A default run lasts up to two hours and records its stopping point for later resumption. You can name filesystems or individual files, with one pass through each target. Targets must be mounted read-write; entries without that option are skipped. Files mapped in memory and files marked no-defrag are not processed. Reorganization needs enough free space to copy the target, with space less fragmented than the original. On quota-enabled systems, the owner also needs sufficient remaining file quota. The manual says system partitions generally do not need this utility and warns that moving bootloader files can prevent booting unless lilo is rerun before reboot.