Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!amdahl!littauer
From: littauer@uts.amdahl.com (Tom Littauer)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.large
Subject: Re: Files > 4MB
Summary: Yes, NFS is limited
Message-ID: <5epo02S6e6i501@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
Date: 15 Nov 90 00:38:38 GMT
References: <1990Nov11.225759.866@ceres.physics.uiowa.edu> <1990Nov12.173130.16222@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: littauer@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Tom Littauer)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 31

In article <1990Nov12.173130.16222@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> garyf@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Gary Faulkner) writes:
>
>Isn't it true that now that systems such as UTS, Unicos, etc. have the 
>ability to have LOCAL files >4MB, NFS files are a problem.

Correct.

>                                                            For instance, 
>it is feasible (I believe) to have a file which is, let's say, 15GB 
>(easily on a 12 wide stripe of 1.5 GB disks).

You don't have to stripe to have big files, but then with big files you
probably want to. The tranfer rate of the file system you describe would
be about 20 MegaBytes/sec sustained.

>                                               Anyway, isn't it true that 
>NFS will not support reading past a certain byte of said file??

Yes, it's true. Until Sun defines the architectural change, us vendors of
big face the ugly choice between limits on NFS file size and non-standard
implementations. So far, we're in the limit camp. As more people create big
files they want to get at with NFS, we'll probably change (not to mention
lobbying with UI and Sun :-).
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