E2fsck and large file

[Theodore Tso]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 11:19:22PM -0400, John Nelson wrote:
> How big is a file that e2fsck considers it to be a large file?
>
>  814611 blocks used (42.79%)
>       0 bad blocks
>       1 large file <----- that

2GB.  This is the size at which point the LARGEFILE read-only compat
flag is set.  It's there so that really old kernels (pre Linux version
2.4) don't try to modify, and thus corrupt filesystems that have > 2GB
files, since Linux 2.2 kernels didn't support files larger than 2
gigabytes.

It's largely a historical issue in this day and age, but it does have
a very specific meaning.

						- Ted