PR bin/6509 (submitted in May 1998) already has a patch to fix this but it was rejected because off_t was assumed by the bug fixer/submitter to be a quat (int64_t). I can't even get an IDE disk below 2G byte easily! And we are still years away from zettabyte disks. So I don't see the point of blocking a _useful_ change that *considerably* improves the situation just because it is not done the `right way'.
Let me say it another way. The bugfix should be accepted and another PR be filed that says there needs to be a constant defining the largest possible off_t value. Also note that traditionally Unix does not define max values for every derived scalar type (ANSI C does, unix does not). Whether that is a good idea or not is a separate discussion and anyway such a change is much more global. [IMHO it is better to avoid an explosion of silly names by extending the language with operators `maxof' and `minof' (analogous to `sizeof') that return the max and min legal value for any scalar type but that is not likely to happen.] -- bakul To Unsubscribe: send mail to majord...@freebsd.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
