[Pw_forum] Large files

Serguei Patchkovskii ps at ned.sims.nrc.ca
Fri Apr 23 16:44:43 CEST 2004


On Fri, 23 Apr 2004, Mickael Profeta wrote:

> This not something trivial to solve.
>
> Linux on a 32bits architectecture has this 2Gb files limit.
> There is a LFS (large file support) option in 2.4 kernel which can
> overcome this problem, but you will have to recompile your kernel, and
> then recompile pwscf with the hope it will take it into account (never
> tested...)

Mickael,

Support for files larger than 2Gbytes has been the standard feature of the
Linux 2.4 kernels for THE LAST TWO YEARS. They work with all filesystems
capable of supporting large files (at least xfs, ext3, reiser, and nfs3
- and likely a few more). Any reasonably recent distribution will also
come with large-file support already enabled in all libraries and
utilities.

I certainly have no problem with using files as large at 1.5 TERAbytes
under linux/x86 (using standard, out-of-the-box Suse installation) -
with the limit coming not from kernel, but from the size of the RAID
array we can afford.

Blaming Linux kernels for not being able to handle large files is
simply not a good excuse anymore.

Serguei

---
Dr. Serguei Patchkovskii

Tel: +1-(613)-990-0945
Fax: +1-(613)-947-2838
E-mail: Serguei.Patchkovskii at nrc.ca

Coordinator of Modelling Software
Theory and Computation Group
Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences
National Research Council Canada
Room 2011, 100 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0R6 Canada





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