Files > 4GB

[Tom Littauer]

In article <1008 at intelisc.isc.intel.com> cfj at isc.intel.com (Charlie Johnson) writes:
>
>I'm curious if the companies who support Unix on large systems made the
>necessary file system changes to allow individual files which are larger 
>than 4 gigabytes ??

Yes. Up to 6 terabytes is practical, exabytes are theoretically possible.

>                     You'd have to at least stretch the file size in the
>inode beyond 32 bits and possibly mess around in the super block.  Any
>comments ??

File size is now 64 bits, the major/minor is now 32 bits (from 16), fsck is
a thing of the past (on 6 terabytes it would've been ugly indeed).

Size carries with it other issues, like reliability (we use a RAID-5-like
checksum scheme), sequential I/O performance (large blocks, contiguous
allocation, and striping), and backup/recovery (special tools). Yes, all
of this is still SVID standard.

Oops, I'm starting to sound like an ad. Sorry. The point was only that you
can't just change the limits... you've got to think through the related
issues of *BIG* UNIX systems.
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