Trimkommando

Trimkommando is the German term for the TRIM command, a storage instruction used by modern solid-state drives (SSDs) to manage blocks that are no longer in use. The command enables a host operating system to inform the storage device which logical blocks hold obsolete data and can be erased internally. By allowing the drive to pre-erase or repurpose these blocks, trimkommando helps control write amplification and preserves performance and endurance over time.

In practice, when a file is deleted or space is freed, the operating system may issue a TRIM operation for the corresponding logical blocks. The SSD can then reclaim and erase those blocks during background processes, facilitating faster subsequent writes and reducing wear. Trimkommando is defined for several interfaces, including SATA (ATA TRIM), NVMe, and SCSI semantics (effects via command sets). Filesystems and storage stacks expose TRIM support via a discard mechanism; many operating systems offer both on-demand and periodic TRIM.

Implementation varies by system. Linux supports TRIM through filesystems such as ext4, btrfs, and xfs, typically via the discard mount option or through the fstrim utility that issues TRIM to all mounted filesystems. Windows has TRIM enabled for supported SSDs by default, and devices can be managed in the storage subsystem. macOS provides TRIM support for Apple SSDs and, with limitations, for some third-party drives via the system interface.

Limitations include that trimkommando requires support from both the storage device and the host OS; some RAID configurations may not pass TRIM through. Performance impact is usually negligible, but initial TRIM activity can occur during background maintenance. Related topics include solid-state drives, garbage collection, fstrim, and discard.