I've found many discussions on the web about the maximum file size supported by ext2/ext3 file systems. They all seem to indicate that there may have been a 2GB file limit in the past in either ext2/3 or in the kernel but that the limit was removed in Linux 2.4.x. I have seen no definitive statement indicating that this was actually changed. Can someone tell me exactly what the maximum file size and maximum file system size is for the ext2/3 implementations distributed with Red Hat Linux 7.3? Thank you! -max
Hi, On Tue, Oct 08, 2002 at 09:05:08AM -0400, Max Berenson wrote:> I've found many discussions on the web about the maximum file size > supported by ext2/ext3 file systems. They all seem to indicate that > there may have been a 2GB file limit in the past in either ext2/3 or in > the kernel but that the limit was removed in Linux 2.4.x.Correct.> I have seen no definitive statement indicating that this was actually > changed.There have been plenty!> Can someone tell me exactly what the maximum file size and > maximum file system size is for the ext2/3 implementations distributed > with Red Hat Linux 7.3?file size: about 4 TB. Filesystem size: 1 TB (limited by the block device layer, but that should be increased in 2.5.) --Stephen
Thank you very much! Does the file system size limit of 1TB effectively limit the maximum file size to 1TB as well or can a file span file systems? Is LVM required for a file to span file systems? -max -----Original Message----- From: Stephen C. Tweedie [mailto:sct@redhat.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 11:36 AM To: Max Berenson Cc: ext3-users@redhat.com Subject: Re: Maximum file size Hi, On Tue, Oct 08, 2002 at 09:05:08AM -0400, Max Berenson wrote:> I've found many discussions on the web about the maximum file size > supported by ext2/ext3 file systems. They all seem to indicate that > there may have been a 2GB file limit in the past in either ext2/3 orin> the kernel but that the limit was removed in Linux 2.4.x.Correct.> I have seen no definitive statement indicating that this was actually > changed.There have been plenty!> Can someone tell me exactly what the maximum file size and > maximum file system size is for the ext2/3 implementations distributed > with Red Hat Linux 7.3?file size: about 4 TB. Filesystem size: 1 TB (limited by the block device layer, but that should be increased in 2.5.) --Stephen
Hi, On Tue, Oct 08, 2002 at 11:54:16AM -0400, Max Berenson wrote:> Does the file system size limit of 1TB effectively limit the maximum > file size to 1TB as well or can a file span file systems?No, if the file is sparse (ie. it contains "holes" where there are no disk blocks allocated), then the file size can be larger than the filesystem size. (You make a hole by seeking beyond the current end-of-file and then writing there. The blocks between the old EOF and the start of the new write don't get allocated on disk, but get automatically padded with zeroes on a subsequent read.) Files cannot currently span multiple filesystems. Cheers, Stephen