Lang Zhi wrote:
>
> What is the maximum size of a single file that Linux can handle ?
> Any way to tweak it so that can have much bigger file size ?
The maximum file size on a 32 bits machine (ix86, mac, ppc, atari and
the like) is 2147483648 bytes (2^31 => 2Gb).
Is it enough ?
On 64 bits machine (alpha, ultrasparc), you can go to 2^64 :
18446744073709551616 bytes : 18446 millions of millions of bytes...
Recent kernels may let you create a file up to 4294967296 bytes (4Gb).
If you programm, the glibc provide 64bits versions of standars C
routines (fgetpos64, fseek64, ...).
If you have a big hard disk, you may test 'head -c size < /dev/zero >
Test-file to see if this size is supported. But a max size of several
gigabytes must be enough for most usage, excep very big databases.
You can also use the patches from alan Cox
(ftp.XX.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/alan/v2.2/patch-2.2.9.bz2) where XX
is the ISO code of your pc (fr for france, uk for great britain) and
2.2.9 is the version of the kernel you use.
These patches add great files support.
But you will have to compile a kernel (ask me for further information if
you don't know how to compile it).
But, if you really need very big files (eg for enterprise use), you may
want use faster computer (alpha or ultrasparc based systems).
