Tom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pronouncedth:
> On Thu, 11 Mar 1999, Matti Aarnio wrote:
> > With Linux 2.0 kernel series at 32-bit systems (e.g. i386)
> > the answer is: 2G is absolute limit, period.
> >
> > The longer answer contains the size limit explanations
> > which are available at 64-bit systems (for 2.0 just Alpha
> > machines). See files at ftp://mea.tmt.tele.fi/linux/LFS/
> >
> > At the above mentioned place there is also patch for the kernel
> > to support sizes over 2G at 32-bit platforms, however they
> > are not fully ready to be used quite yet -- some issues are
> > still open regarding glibc 2.1 support syncing.
>
> I don't know about this. I believe the primary issue is support for >
> 2GB files is a design limiation in ext2fs. I don't think it has anything
> to do with the architecture. Supposedly, ext3fs will fix this.
I am happily using ext2 filesystem at my Alpha, and do use
filesizes exceeding 2G quite regularly, thank you. I have
done so since 1.3 series kernels well before 2.* came out.
(Not earlier simply because I didn't have an Alpha before that..)
> For example, FreeBSD has support > 2GB because it uses UFS, and UFS
> supports > 2GB files. I understand that UFS is available for Linux too,
> and when you use it, you get > 2GB files too. I also understand that
> other non-ext2fs filesystems for Linux > 2GB files too.
No you don't. The VFS layer limitations prevent that at 32-bit
machines (without my patches, that is.)
In fact because the UFS and EXT2 share same principal block
addressing scheme at the device, they both have SAME maximum
file size limits with given filesystem block size. (As do all
SysV filesystems, Minix FS, etc. all which use the triply-in-
directed block addressing scheme coming to us from the original
AT&T creation so long ago...)
> Tom
/Matti Aarnio <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
