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2GB limit for tar?

From: Charles Sullivan <cwsulliv@triad.rr.com>
Subject: Re: tar and tgz size
References: <3c264644.4109859@news.wanadoo.be> 
Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 01:43:26 GMT

On Sun, 23 Dec 2001 16:04:34 -0500, mel wrote:

> Hello there,
> 
> I've read somwhere that a tar file is limited to 2Gb. Is it true. What
> does it means. Is it only a tape limit or a software limit?
> 
> Does a tgz file is also limited?
> 
> Thank and merry Xmas !
> 
> Michel

2 GB is the size limit for any file, tar or otherwise, on the Linux ext2
file system.  Other types of Linux-compatible file systems may have
greater (or lesser) file size limits.

Tape drives have no file system per se and a tar file written to a tape
drive is limited only by the capacity of the tape.

A tgz is just a compressed tar file.  It's compressed on the fly as it's
being written so it's only the final size of the compressed file that
counts.
 

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