On 06Sep2019 19:07, ToddAndMargo <ToddAndMargo(a)zoho.com> wrote:
I have a fedora 30 bootable flash drive. /dev/sda5 is my "Linux
Swap". To zero out my swap space to make it more friendly
with gzip?
You could, you know, just skip that partition. Do distinct dds for each
partition instead of the whole drive.
I would try just dd'ing /dev/zero across it, but I am afraid I
might break some file structure or some other stuff.
Sure; Linux swap partitions have a little header. But it is transient
data and unimportant. Zero it all. Run "mkswap" on the swap partition
after restore before use. Or zero it, run mkswap, then dd, if you want a
totally "clean" usable image file.
Also, stick a -v in your gzip, you'll get a report of overall
compression achieved.
Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs(a)cskk.id.au>