21.4 Large File Support in Linux
Originally, Linux supported a maximum file size of 2 GB. This was
enough before the explosion of multimedia and as long as no one tried to
manipulate huge databases on Linux. Becoming more and more important for
server computing, the kernel and C library were modified to support file
sizes larger than 2 GB when using a new set of interfaces that
applications must use. Today, almost all major file systems offer LFS
support, allowing you to perform high-end computing.
Table 21-2 offers an overview of
the current limitations of Linux files and file systems.
Table 21-2 Maximum Sizes of File Systems (On-Disk Format)
|
Ext2 or Ext3 (1 kB block size) |
234 (16 GB) |
241 (2 TB) |
|
Ext2 or Ext3 (2 kB block size) |
238 (256 GB) |
243 (8 TB) |
|
Ext2 or Ext3 (4 kB block size) |
241 (2 TB) |
243-4096 (16 TB-4096 Bytes) |
|
Ext2 or Ext3 (8 kB block size) (systems with 8 kB pages, like
Alpha) |
246 (64 TB) |
245 (32 TB) |
|
ReiserFS v3 |
246 (64 TB) |
245 (32 TB) |
|
XFS |
263 (8 EB) |
263 (8 EB) |
|
NFSv2 (client side) |
231 (2 GB) |
263 (8 EB) |
|
NFSv3 (client side) |
263 (8 EB) |
263 (8 EB) |
IMPORTANT: Linux Kernel Limits
Table 21-2 describes the
limitations regarding the on-disk format. The 2.6 kernel imposes its own
limits on the size of files and file systems handled by it.
These are as follows:
- File Size
-
On 32-bit systems, files may not exceed
the size of 2 TB (241 bytes).
- File System Size
-
File systems may be up to
273 bytes in size. However, this limit is still
out of reach for the currently available hardware.
