Block suballocation is a feature of some computer file systems which allows large blocks or allocation units to be used while making efficient use of "slack" space at the end of large files, space which would otherwise be lost for other use to internal fragmentation.
In file systems that don't support fragments, this feature is also called tail merging or tail packing because it is commonly done by packing the "tail", or last partial block, of multiple files into a single block.
Read more about Block Suballocation: Rationale, Suballocation Schemes, Efficiency
Famous quotes containing the word block:
“It is, in both cases, that a spiritual life has been imparted to nature; that the solid seeming block of matter has been pervaded and dissolved by a thought; that this feeble human being has penetrated the vast masses of nature with an informing soul, and recognised itself in their harmony, that is, seized their law. In physics, when this is attained, the memory disburthens itself of its cumbrous catalogues of particulars, and carries centuries of observation in a single formula.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)