[Zope] EXT2 has nothing to do with it

[sean.upton@uniontrib.com]

Does this mean that my ZEO storage server, which runs on Debian 2.2 / Linux
2.4.5 on a Sun E450 would have LFS in the VFS layer on my plain-old ext2
partitions?  Supposing I can get my Python compiled with large file
support... hmm.  food for thought - or a chance to break something... either
way...

Sean

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Anderson [mailto:bill@immosys.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 4:51 PM
To: zope@zope.org
Subject: [Zope] EXT2 has nothing to do with it


On 02 Aug 2001 13:17:17 -0400, marc lindahl wrote:
> 
> 
> > From: Bill Anderson <bill@immosys.com>
> > 
> > Or ext2, or ext3, or reiserfs ...
> > 
> > Once again, it is not the FS that has the limitation, it was the 32bit
> > VFS on Intel machines, NOT ext2!
> > 
> 
> Yes, I understand that -- that with a current version of ext2 or patches
to

No NO NO NO!

EXT2 HAS NOTHNG TO DO WITH IT!

Sorry I got a bit loud there, but it seems there is a connection issue
here.  ;)

> it, it supports >2GB files.  My point being, it looks like SuSe is the
only
> flavor that really supports it.  Redhat certainly does not from the normal
> installer.  And the normal RH installer doesn't let you create other than
> ext2 partitions (though I believe there's a floppy patch to the installer
to
> do ReiserFS?)  You'd have to create a separate partition for your data.fs,
> and install the other file systems, at a later time, it looks like.  Over
my
> head....

What I am trying to tell you, is that on RH 7.1, there is no additonal
step needed. None, zip zilch nada, to support large files. install
normally. This is true of ANY distribution that uses a kernel version
2.4.0 or higher. Period.

The VFS is in the _kernel_ not the filesystem. If you install
aplain-jain RedHat 7.1, you already have support for large files,
period. There is no Filesystem option for it because there cannot be.
The filesystem is _irrelevant_.

whetehr python itself has issues, is an entirely separate matter.

yes, there are patches ot the Installer for other filesystems, but,
again, this has nothing to do with large files support (LFS).

SuSE is certianly not the only distro 'supporting' large files, as any
distribution that uses the Linux Kernel v2.4 or above has it. period.

In fact, last I recal, ReiserFS on kernel version below 2.4 have the
limit, simply because the limit was NOT an ext filesystem limit, rather
a Linux KERNEL issue. Of course, this problem was limited to intel
machines, on, say, a DEC(COMPAQ) Alpha machine, ext has been handling
large files just fine for quite some time. it was never an issue there.

There are reasons to prefer other filesystems, such as ext3, or XFS, but
the 2Gb problem, on kernel 2.4+, is not one of them.

So, in order to get LFS in the most simple manner:

Install any distribution of linux that uses the 2.4 series of kernels
(ie. Redhat 7.1, I believe mandrake 8, though I do not recommend that
for a server, and I am sure the latest version of SuSE and Debian). Do a
*normal* install, no further effort needed. Period.


> 
> For many of us, installing linux is by far the hardest part :)


Then you've got it made :)

Bill



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