Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!ucsd!ucbvax!imf.unit.no!hanche From: hanche@imf.unit.no (Harald Hanche-Olsen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo Subject: Why is a cmpexe file so big? Message-ID: <9010121142.AA11814@hufsa> Date: 12 Oct 90 12:54:54 GMT References: <9010120905.AA03175@icaen.uiowa.edu> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 46 Thanks for you letter. Below is my own follow-up, just posted a few minutes ago...: In article hanche@imf.unit.no (Harald Hanche-Olsen) writes: I just tried building a cmpexe file using the `xar' command. The result is interesting: % xar -cv pw pw.a88k pw.m68k Added element tagged m68k from 'pw.m68k' Added element tagged a88k from 'pw.a88k' and I proceded to show the output of ls -l and rant and rave about the horrible waste of space here. Since that, several people have written to me, pointing out that the file is actually sparse, so it doesn't use as much disk space as ls -l suggests. Well, I checked it out a little more: % ls -ls pw* 176 -rwxr-xr-x 1 hanche 270420 Oct 12 10:24 pw* 8 -rwxr-xr-x 1 hanche 5311 Sep 16 10:27 pw.a88k* 8 -rwxr-xr-x 1 hanche 5066 Sep 16 10:40 pw.m68k* % /com/ld -a pw* sys type blocks current type uid used length attr rights name file cmpexe 44 270420 P prwx- pw file coff 8 5311 P prwx- pw.a88k file coff 8 5066 P prwx- pw.m68k 3 entries listed, 60 blocks used. Now that's interesting. Which one is a liar -- /bin/ls, or /com/ld? Even if /com/ld tells the truth, there is some wastage -- but not quite as horrible as I thought. By the way, I had neglected to tell you we are running SR10.3 (beta 3) here. Sorry about that. Time to apr, perhaps. If I only knew which program to complain about... - Harald Hanche-Olsen Division of Mathematical Sciences The Norwegian Institute of Technology N-7034 Trondheim, NORWAY