Show HN: I missed the moving blocks, so I built a real Linux disk defragmenter
A graphical Linux disk defragmenter has been built by the author, who had missed the old Windows utility. The graphical tool makes the filesystem reorganization visible by showing files, free space, and metadata allocation. It finds fragmented files and reorganizes supported filesystems without shelling out to command-line tools.
The ext4 path has received the most testing, while FAT write support is newer and should be used with disposable or fully backed-up volumes. The tool decompresses a deliberately fragmented ext4 fixture, attaches it as a temporary loop device, and opens the defragmenter. The demo detaches and deletes the temporary image after closing, ensuring it never writes to real volumes.
Privileged operations are handled by a PolicyKit-authorized helper over D-Bus, and the application is dual-licensed under MIT or Apache 2.0.
Written by urgent.news from Hacker News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
