What's the truth behind the 2GB file size limit?
I heard that ReiserFS was going to get rid of the 2GB file size limit. When that didn't work, I heard that kernel 2.4 woudl get rid of it. Then I heard that the newest vesrion of ReiserFS would fix it. Then I heard that it's a problem with 32 bit architechtures. Alas, it is still with us today. I just ran a test on my newest server and it's still here: jw@ccs012:~> dd if=/dev/zero of=ddtest bs=1024 count=8192000 dd: writing `ddtest': File too large 2097153+0 records in 2097152+0 records out jw@ccs012:~> du -sh ddtest 2.0G ddtest jw@ccs012:~> uname -a Linux ccs012 2.4.10-64GB-SMP #1 SMP Fri Sep 28 17:26:36 GMT 2001 i686 unknown jw@ccs012:~> mount /dev/sda7 on / type reiserfs (rw) Does anyone know what the REAL deal is? -- ---------------------------------------------------- Jonathan Wilson System Administrator Clickpatrol.com Cedar Creek Software http://www.cedarcreeksoftware.com
The 2GB file size limit is fundamentally a 32bit issue, which has indeed been fixed on reiserfs and lots of other filesystems (jfs2,xfs,ext2 in new versions, etc), at the filesystem level. However, each command that acts on 2GB files also needs to be updated or recompiled to support larger files - tar is one of those utilities, ejl@upstairs:/largefiles> du -sk * 3110735 movies.tar ejl@upstairs:/largefiles> ls -l total 3110735 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3182284800 Apr 9 22:26 movies.tar One 3GB file on a reiserfs filesystem, it needs to be a v3.6x reiserfs not v3.5 one though. The is a very good website on filesystems here: http://www.cbbrowne.com/info/fs.html which includes some information on 2GB file sizes and the reasons behind it. Ewan On Tue, 2002-04-09 at 22:40, JW wrote:
I heard that ReiserFS was going to get rid of the 2GB file size limit.
When that didn't work, I heard that kernel 2.4 woudl get rid of it.
Then I heard that the newest vesrion of ReiserFS would fix it.
Then I heard that it's a problem with 32 bit architechtures.
Alas, it is still with us today.
I just ran a test on my newest server and it's still here:
jw@ccs012:~> dd if=/dev/zero of=ddtest bs=1024 count=8192000 dd: writing `ddtest': File too large 2097153+0 records in 2097152+0 records out jw@ccs012:~> du -sh ddtest 2.0G ddtest jw@ccs012:~> uname -a Linux ccs012 2.4.10-64GB-SMP #1 SMP Fri Sep 28 17:26:36 GMT 2001 i686 unknown jw@ccs012:~> mount /dev/sda7 on / type reiserfs (rw)
Does anyone know what the REAL deal is?
--
---------------------------------------------------- Jonathan Wilson System Administrator Clickpatrol.com Cedar Creek Software http://www.cedarcreeksoftware.com
-- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com
* JW (jw@centraltexasit.com) [020409 14:40]:
Does anyone know what the REAL deal is?
I'm not claiming to know the "REAL deal" but you problem might be that your Reiser filesystem was made with the old 3.5 format. Try unmounting the filesystem and doing this: mount -o conv /yourmountpoint This will convert the filesystem to the new format (and make it unusable with 2.2 kernel so be careful). Depending on the size of the filesystem it can take a while. There's much more about LFS here: http://www.suse.de/~aj/linux_lfs.html -- -ckm
Christopher Mahmood
This will convert the filesystem to the new format (and make it unusable with 2.2 kernel so be careful).
One should just keep in mind that only newly created files will be able to break the 2 GiB barrier. Existing files can't be extended beyond that threshold. Philipp
participants (4)
-
Christopher Mahmood -
Ewan Leith -
JW -
Philipp Thomas