[Info-vax] 64-bit file sizes, was: Re: scp or sftp: file is "raw", needs to be parsed - possible to work around that?

[Simon Clubley]

On 2021-05-20, Stephen Hoffman <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> wrote:
> On 2021-05-20 17:59:33 +0000, Simon Clubley said:
>
>> It's also possible that when using higher-level languages such as C 
>> with the C APIs they may just do what Linux does and just call 
>> different versions in the glibc stat() call depending on whether you 
>> are working with 32-bit or 64-bit variables.
>
> I'd expect we'll see 32-bit values exposed in existing apps, 
> discussions of C large-file support aside. Very few folks use 
> large-file support.
>

As Craig and Arne have just reminded me :-), there is already some
64-bit support in the C RTL (at least until you reach block numbers
greater than 32 bits).

In my defence, I was thinking about the native VMS APIs and tacked on
the C RTL comments as an afterthought...

I wonder how difficult it would be to use the 64-bit stuff (when it
arrives) in Macro-32 code.

>
>> Also, will there need to be another version of RMS indexed files to 
>> handle the larger file sizes ?
>
> There are 32-bit LBNs in various parts of RMS and its APIs, and in the 
> IO$_ACPCONTROL interface, and in the $qio interface, yes.
>

I was thinking more about the internal RMS indexed file structure and
if the internal block pointers to other parts of the indexed file are
32-bit values.

I was wondering if we would need a Prolog-4 version of RMS indexed
files with 64-bit internal block numbers. There are also RFAs to
consider and how you would move them around the rest of VMS and
the user's applications.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.