file locking questions

[Alan Bateman]

Avinash Lakshman wrote:
> Maybe this is slightly off topic but wouldn't the addition of large 
> array support be great here. I am assuming that RAM file system in the 
> VFS can only use files that can get as large as 2 GB since is is 
> maintained using some sort of an array addressed using an int. If the 
> machine has large amount of memory I am assuming that one would need 
> to maintain multiple 2 GB file systems in order to use the memory more 
> effectively. Wouldn't this be a good use case for providing large 
> array support so that RAM file system could hold files as large as 
> permissible memory? I am new to this VFS thingy so if I am way off 
> please correct me.
It depends on how the provider chooses to implement the underlying 
storage but usually it will be in blocks. For example, a block might be 
a 4k direct buffer. Blocks are allocated to files as they grow and 
returned to the some pool when files are truncated or deleted.

-Alan.