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Message-ID: <00be01c31e15$944d0d50$78d96f83@pomello>
From: "Max Bowsher" <maxb AT ukf DOT net>
To: "Bill C. Riemers" <cygwin AT docbill DOT net>
Cc: <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
References: <16072 DOT 892 DOT 778395 DOT 24290 AT gargle DOT gargle DOT HOWL><003901c31d8c$6ec495f0$78d96f83 AT pomello> <16072 DOT 6666 DOT 10124 DOT 338022 AT gargle DOT gargle DOT HOWL> <00f301c31e12$c29efdb0$6400a8c0 AT FoxtrotTech0001>
Subject: Re: SPARSE files considered harmful - please revert
Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 15:47:32 +0100
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Bill C. Riemers wrote:
> Only executable files should be sparse files...  Under Linux, the
executable
> bit is checked by cp.  (Or at least this was true several years ago, when
I
> last looked at the code.)  Only if the file is marked as executable is it
> possibly made sparse.

I haven't looked in the code, but there is absolutely no mention of this in
the man page.

> Granted sometimes you do have a data file which can be made sparse.
> However, unless you are familiar with the code used to read the file, this
> is very dangerous.  So this should be decided on a case by case basis.

Um? By my understanding, making a file sparse can never be dangerous. It can
cause sub-optimal performance, but code reading the file doesn't have to be
aware of anything special - the OS takes care of it.



Max.


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