I was doing some intense network data capture using TCPDump on Linux against a busy network when I hit up against the 2GB file limit (not that hard to do on a busy Gigabit network). I must say I was surprised considering I was using RH Enterprise Linux.

I have often come up against the 2GB limit under Windows 2000 doing database work but never under Linux. Most 32bit applications under both Windows and Linux have the same issue. However, I was able to create a 2.7GB text file under a DOS prompt on XP by piping the output of a command line program to file. Bizarre!

I needed to edit the 2.7GB text file (yes I do, do some weird shit sometimes :) so I used Total Commander to split it into 700MB chunks, then used trusty old PFE was able to edit the text files. Not bad for an editor that fits on a floppy, considering most text editors can't handle text files over a 100MB in size.

Once we all move to 64bit computing, file size limits will become a thing of the past (for most users)