From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <d274d0677036491d9d5f52e1422d1a31@proxima.alt.za>
To: 9fans@9fans.net
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2012 09:07:19 +0200
From: lucio@proxima.alt.za
In-Reply-To: <86haochpd8.fsf@cmarib.ramside>
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Subject: Re: [9fans] growing/shrinking venti arena files -OR- arena file
	format
Topicbox-Message-UUID: e48b078a-ead7-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025

> Is
> there a TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION for the arena file format?

The source code is eminently readable and the "words" directory (in
/sys/src/cmd/venti) contains quite a bit of details, at a glance.  I'd
say there's enough there to make an educated guess or two.

In my experience, the most sensible way to resize disk capacity for
venti is to back up the arenas and then rewrite them to the new
format.  I didn't expect it when I did it by accident, but it seems
practical, if not particularly fast.  That, of course, may be a good
reason not to mess with arena sizes, it is hard to restore them
without spending a lot of time on them.

++L