Re: BIG files & file systems

[Jan Harkes]

On Wed, Jul 31, 2002 at 01:16:20PM -0600, Peter J. Braam wrote:
> Hi, 
> 
> I've just been told that some "limitations" of the following kind will
> remain:
>   page index = unsigned long
>   ino_t      = unsigned long

The number of files is not limited by ino_t, just look at the
iget5_locked operation in fs/inode.c. It is possible to have your own
n-bit file identifier, and simply provide your own comparison function.
The ino_t then becomes the 'hash-bucket' in which the actual inode is
looked up.

For the page_index, maybe at some point someone manages to cleanly mix
large pages (2MB?) with the current 4KB pages. Very large files could
then use the page_index as an index into these large pages which should
allow for 9PB files (or something close to that).

Jan