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:
“The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chess-board, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem.... I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.”
—Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968)