What does Compaction in HBase refer to?

In HBase, compaction refers to the process of merging multiple small HFile files stored in an HBase table into fewer, larger HFile files. This process helps reduce storage space usage, improves read and write performance, and reduces the number of files that need to be scanned during reads. Compaction can be achieved through Major Compaction, which merges all HFile files, or Minor Compaction, which only merges neighboring small files. Compaction is a vital component of the HBase system, ensuring data consistency and stable performance.