Re: [vox-tech] Re: [vox] Large File Support

[Micah Cowan <micahMAPS@cowanbox.com>]

On Tue, Mar 27, 2001 at 11:56:26AM -0800, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> eric, first, let me tell you the reason for the limit in the first place.
> 
> the 2GB limit isn't linux's fault.  it's the fault of the ISO/ANSI C team.
> many operating systems use the (what i call) "strange" data types like
> fpos_t and off_t.  these functions *can* break when you deal with files
> larger than 2GB.  the answer is to retypedef the wierd data types.  to wit:
> 
> ssize_t write(int fd, const void *buf, size_t count);
>  ^                                      ^
>  |                                      |
> wierd                                 wierd
> 
> i think you can get the definitions for these wierd types in types.h.
> 
> however, there are functions like fseek() and ftell() which use a good old
> fasioned "long int" for the offset, and you can't play around with that.
> 
> 
> AFAIK, 2.2.18 does not support files larger than 2GB without a kernel patch.
> i do believe, though, that the patch made it into the 2.3 kernel.

write() isn't ISO/ANSI C.  It's POSIX.

And actually, fpos_t is the /solution/ to the problem, not the cause
of it (off_t isn't ISO/ANSI C either).  The fact that fseek() and
ftell() use old fassioned "long int" means that, if on your
implementation "long int" is 32-bits (which it is on both yours and
mine), it can only address a 2GB file.  fpos_t was provided so that
your C implementation could choose to define it as the most
appropriate type for addressing files on your system.  This is a good
thing, not a bad thing.  

Micah