[Fedora-spins] The magic 4GiB squashfs filesize limit

Jeroen van Meeuwen kanarip at kanarip.com
Wed Jan 21 11:12:09 UTC 2009


During our last meeting, we did not have enough time to address all 
items on our agenda, so I'm creating a bunch of threads where we can 
start discussing some of the topics that we missed, so that we may have 
a smoother meeting next time, and can actually address current spins and 
spin review requests.

This thread concerns the 4GiB squashfs filesize limit, which will cause 
the DVD .iso file to be over 4GiB as well.

There's one basic argument to make against a DVD .iso file being over 
4GiB, and that is that users downloading the DVD .iso file to a vfat 
filesystem cannot go over the magic 4GB filesize limit.

Note that it really is the .iso file size we're talking about, and we 
really don't care about the >4GB squashfs image; it just so happens that 
if the contents of a .iso go >4GB, the .iso will go >4GB ;-)

This particular issue is raised by the Games Spin, which I consider one 
of the first downloads for a Windows user who may or may not be using 
vfat still. Lots of (Windows) people want to see what Games are 
available on Linux, right? A relatively greater portion of these Windows 
users (then say, Linux users) may still be using vfat, and that's what 
I'm concerned with.

Also note that our x86_64 installation DVD is oversized in this aspect 
as well.

I wanted to vote on this during our last meeting. Either we block >4GB 
spins, or we allow them. So, the vote becomes: Do we allow .iso files 
over 4GB?

Please allow for a discussion if necessary, and then vote, so you do not 
have to change your vote after someone made you change your opinion ;-)

Kind regards,

Jeroen van Meeuwen
-kanarip



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