Files > 4MB

[Tom Littauer]

In article <1990Nov12.173130.16222 at ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> garyf at ncsa.uiuc.edu (Gary Faulkner) writes:
>
>Isn't it true that now that systems such as UTS, Unicos, etc. have the 
>ability to have LOCAL files >4MB, NFS files are a problem.

Correct.

>                                                            For instance, 
>it is feasible (I believe) to have a file which is, let's say, 15GB 
>(easily on a 12 wide stripe of 1.5 GB disks).

You don't have to stripe to have big files, but then with big files you
probably want to. The tranfer rate of the file system you describe would
be about 20 MegaBytes/sec sustained.

>                                               Anyway, isn't it true that 
>NFS will not support reading past a certain byte of said file??

Yes, it's true. Until Sun defines the architectural change, us vendors of
big face the ugly choice between limits on NFS file size and non-standard
implementations. So far, we're in the limit camp. As more people create big
files they want to get at with NFS, we'll probably change (not to mention
lobbying with UI and Sun :-).
-- 
UUCP:  littauer at amdahl.amdahl.com
  or:  {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,ames,uunet}!amdahl!littauer
DDD:   (408) 737-5056
USPS:  Amdahl Corp.  M/S 278,  1250 E. Arques Av,  Sunnyvale, CA 94086

I'll tell you when I'm giving you the party line. The rest of the time
it's my very own ravings (accept no substitutes).