[NTLUG:Discuss] 2GB+ file sizes

[Steve Baker]

S Jackson wrote:
> 
> Do any of ya'll know where I can get some more info about the 2GB file
> size limitation in Linux?  Is the VFS going to be updated in 2.4 to
> support large files?  Are there currently any patches I can apply to use
> big files?  I'm trying to integrate Linux into a production environment,
> and this is a big stumbling block (although our current OS, SCO
> Openserver, has the same problem).  Please, if you have any info let me
> know.  Thanx.

SGI announced that they had freed up the source for their XFS filing
system for Linux use - that can do >2Gb - but I don't know whether
anyone has actually ported that system across to Linux yet. SGI's
XFS is *very* cool.  You can do neat stuff like telling the OS
that a particular process needs (say) 30% of the disk bandwidth,
and the filing system will hold off other processes from accessing
the disk in order to keep that proportion of the bandwidth free.

As another *wild* thought.  Can DOS file systems have >2Gb files?
If so, you could format your large partition as a DOS drive (yuk,
ack!) and mount it under Linux.  I have no idea if that would
work.

Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
sjbaker1 at airmail.net (home)  http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker
sjbaker at hti.com      (work)