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Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!jimp
From: jimp@cognos.uucp (Jim Patterson)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: C RTL [again?]
Message-ID: <859@cognos.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Jun-87 16:41:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: cognos.859
Posted: Tue Jun  9 16:41:19 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jun-87 09:56:07 EDT
References: <12308535119.47.AWALKER@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
Reply-To: jimp@cognos.UUCP (Jim Patterson)
Distribution: world
Organization: Cognos Incorporated, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 20

In article <12308535119.47.AWALKER@RED.RUTGERS.EDU> AWalker@RED.RUTGERS.EDU.UUCP writes:
>Did I miss it back whenever, or is there really a bug in VAXCRTL that silently
>limits the size of a read() to 65535 bytes?

I don't think that it's fair to call this a bug; "limitation" is
more appropriate.  I'm sure there are UNIX implementations (e.g.
ones with 16-bit int's) that have comparable limits. Yes, it should
be documented in the manual somewhere (I'm not sure if it is or
not).  

In fact, 65535 is a limitation for RMS records, not just for C.
To overcome the limitation the C RTL would have to be prepared to
issue multiple RMS gets/puts for a single C read/write, which
could be done, but wouldn't be exactly equivalent.  I suppose the
implementors didn't think that anyone would think of reading
more than 65535 bytes with a single read.
-- 

Jim Patterson          decvax!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!jimp
Cognos Incorporated