Re: 2GB File limitation

[Matti Aarnio <matti.aarnio@zmailer.org>]

On Fri, Sep 28, 2001 at 10:13:09AM +0200, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Sep 2001, Bobby Hitt wrote:
> > Is someone working on a way to overcome the 2GB file limitation in
> > Linux? I currently backup several servers using a dedicated hard drive
> > for the backups. Recently I saw one backup die saying the the file
> > size had been exceeded. I've never had good luck with tape backups,
> > yes they backup, but whenever I really need a file, it can't be
> > retrieved.
> 
> file sizes up to ~ 2 TB are supported under the 2.4 kernel. (or 2.2 kernel
> + patches) Most utilities are updated to use O_LARGEFILE properly, in any
> recent 2.4-based Linux distribution. I regularly use 6-10 GB files.

  Like Ingo says, most of modern distributions begin to work with
  O_LARGEFILE  properly, but still some utilities fail it.

  Your older backup application program may fail it too.

  The solution could be as simple as piping the backup material
  into another program, which then pipes it out, e.g.:
	'|dd bs=1M of=/backups/fileNNN'

> 	Ingo

/Matti Aarnio