Date: 	Sat, 13 Mar 1999 17:53:43 -0800 (PST)
From: Tom <tom@uniserve.com>
To: Matti Aarnio <matti.aarnio@sonera.fi>
cc: Dietmar Stein <dstein2203@t-online.de>, linux-raid@vger.rutgers.edu
Subject: Re: Maximum filesize of one file
In-Reply-To: <19990310234257Z92257-891+152@mea.tmt.tele.fi>
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On Thu, 11 Mar 1999, Matti Aarnio wrote:

> dstein2203@t-online.de (Dietmar Stein) asked:
> > Hi guys,
> > 
> > not really the topic - I know - but I read that the maximum size of one
> > file is currently 2GB on linux like on other operating systems (e.g
> > HP-UX supports filesizes above 2GB but HP does not take support for it).
> > 
> > Is there a way to increase the size for testing? I was looking for a
> > parameter in the kernel like ulimit but didn't find until now. Can
> > someone tell me how to change/increase?
> 
> 	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.

  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.
  

Tom