RE: File Limits

[Xavier Tarifa <Xavier.Tarifa@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I just created a 3 gb file on a dos 7.10 and it worked (worked as in dir tells the correct filesize). I'll have to wait a day or two to test it against our database because I'm offsite, then I'll report back the results.

-----Mensaje original-----
De: linux-msdos-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:linux-msdos-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] En nombre de Bryan J Smith
Enviado el: martes, 18 de enero de 2011 18:35
Para: Xavier Tarifa; linux-msdos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Asunto: Re: File Limits

All DOS (including DOS 7/Win 4 releases running in 386Enhanced mode -- Windows 95, 98, Me) only support 2GiB files IIRC.  Even Real86 mode DOS 7 supports FAT32, which allows bigger than 2GiB _file_systems_, but still has the 2GiB-1 (signed 32-bit int) _individual_file_ size limitation IIRC.


In fact, I don't think the 4GiB-1 (unsigned 32-bit int) support is in any DOS/Win releases.  I only think it is an option in NT kernels (FAT16 in 3.1, 3.5, 3.51 and 4.0, FAT16 and FAT32 in 5.0/2000, 5.1/XP-2003, 6.0-Vista and 6.1/7-2008).  And any program that uses it _must_ know about the NT-only Win32 function calls that offer this.

I.e., the "Chicago" (Win9x) and NT/Win32 teams used _different_ DOS Int 21h and Win32[s] function calls, the former completely ignoring the pre-existing of the latter.  "Chicago" _never_ supported the native NT/Win32 calls, hence why they likely _never_ supported the extensions for 4GiB-1 support IIRC.[1]

One quick trip to TechNet and you'll note this is an issue in "bare metal" 
DOS/Win and even NT.  The legacy "Chicago" DOS Int 21h file services don't handle growing beyond 2GiB-1 proper, _unless_ the NT/Win32 function extensions are utilized.  Unfortunately even NT 5.0 (Windows 2000) implements the "Chicago" 
calls bug-for-bug for compatibility reasons.

I.e., your program is likely instigating this, and the OS is just letting it do what it wants (and causing the issue).

-- Bryan

NOTES:  
[1] Like many libraries in NT/Win32, things just "didn't work" or "work well" 
under Win9x -- OpenGL being my personal favorite, and the whole "DirectMM -- aka Direct [DOS] Memory Map" lineage now known as "DirectX".  It wasn't until NT 5.0 (Windows 2000) that the NT/Win32 team started also supporting the
"Chicago"/Win32 DOS Int 21h changes.



----- Original Message ----

From: Xavier Tarifa <Xavier.Tarifa@xxxxxxxxxxx>

So here's my problem: Until now I was using dosemu with ms-dos 6.22 to run an old database. A little while ago we had some big changes to the tables and they grew a lot.
Yesterday I realized that we have a database file that is about to hit 2 Gb. I remembered that some time ago, we hit a bug on our program and it endlessly inserted rows on a table until it hit the 2 gb mark. Then the file either disappeared or became a 0 bytes file, I don't remember well.
So I started reading and found that ms-dos 6.22 only supports FAT16 and apparently it only allows 2 gb volumes, and 2 gb files.
So I thought of using ms-dos 7.10 which supports fat32 and would give us 4 gb files. But the same happens. The files disappear as soon as they hit the 2 gb mark. And when I execute the dir command, it always reports 2 gb of free disk space, which is odd.

I don't know if this is a limitation of dosemu or I'm doing something wrong. 
Right now, I have about 140 users. On each $HOME/.dosemu/drive_c/ of the users there are symlinks to each file in /usr/share/dosemu/drive_z/ , where ms-dos is located. And I have the database files in /datos/ . I use lredir to make it appear as f: to every user.
All of this is in the same ext3 partition.

Any ideas? 
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