From owner-freebsd-hackers  Wed Sep 15  8: 1:47 1999
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To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject: Bug in dd seeking beyond 2G
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 10:53:10 -0400
From: Bakul Shah <bakul@torrentnet.com>
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PR bin/6509 (submitted in May 1998) already has a patch to
fix this but it was rejected because off_t was assumed by the
bug fixer/submitter to be a quat (int64_t).  I can't even get
an IDE disk below 2G byte easily!  And we are still years
away from zettabyte disks.  So I don't see the point of
blocking a _useful_ change that *considerably* improves the
situation just because it is not done the `right way'.

Let me say it another way.  The bugfix should be accepted and
another PR be filed that says there needs to be a constant
defining the largest possible off_t value.  Also note that
traditionally Unix does not define max values for every
derived scalar type (ANSI C does, unix does not).  Whether
that is a good idea or not is a separate discussion and
anyway such a change is much more global.  [IMHO it is better
to avoid an explosion of silly names by extending the
language with operators `maxof' and `minof' (analogous to
`sizeof') that return the max and min legal value for any
scalar type but that is not likely to happen.]

-- bakul


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