# [Solved]What filesize is maximun to send across a network?

## cgmd

Hi, All...

I'm struggling to understand why a file I want to transfer onto a mounted network directory is deemed too large?

I have a backup file on a local directory:

```

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 3960494080 2008-11-08 08:36 ltbu.tar
```

I want to copy or move it to my network data server, a directory of which I've mounted as /home/DataServe:

```

# cp ltbu.tar /home/DataServ/LT-BU/

`ltbu.tar' -> `/home/DataServ/LT-BU/ltbu.tar'

cp: writing `/home/DataServ/LT-BU/ltbu.tar': File too large

```

On my data server end, I have the following in the destination directory:

```

 LT-BU # ll

total 2099228

-rwxrw-rw- 1 chagru chagru       1420 Feb  4  2007 fstab

-rwxrw-rw- 1 chagru chagru        302 Feb  4  2007 grub.conf

-rwxrw-rw- 1 chagru users  2147483647 Nov  8 12:41 ltbu.tar

-rwxrw-rw- 1 chagru chagru        866 Feb  4  2007 make.conf

drwxr-xr-x 2 chagru users        4096 Nov  8 08:28 tmp

-rwxrw-rw- 1 chagru chagru       3228 Feb  4  2007 wpa_supplicant.conf

-rwxrw-rw- 1 chagru chagru       2176 Feb  4  2007 xorg.conf

```

And when I check the space usage on my server HD, I get: 

```

  # df

Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on

/dev/hda3             24034944  19424940   3389064  86% /

udev                     10240       192     10048   2% /dev

/dev/hda1               101086     21764     74103  23% /boot

/dev/hda5             28842748   4796588  22581036  18% /home

/dev/hda6            186410520  46698476 130242936  27% /data

/dev/hdb1            281650272  75523520 191819668  29% /media

none                    517056         0    517056   0% /dev/shm

```

This directory I'm attempting to transfer to is on /dev/hda6...

Would someone please explain what I'm missing, here?  :Confused: 

Thanks!

----------

## defenderBG

a filesystem has a limitation to how big a file can be. for fat32 it was 2GB, for ext3 (depends on a few settings) but at least 2GB, etc. What partition type are you using. Show the /etc/fstab pls.

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## cgmd

 *defenderBG wrote:*   

> a filesystem has a limitation to how big a file can be. for fat32 it was 2GB, for ext3 (depends on a few settings) but at least 2GB, etc. What partition type are you using. Show the /etc/fstab pls.

 

```

/dev/hda1                  /boot                   ext2            defaults,noatime            1 2

/dev/hda2                  none                    swap            sw                          0 0

/dev/hda3                  /                       ext3            noatime                     0 1

/dev/hda5                  /home                   ext3            noatime                     0 2

/dev/hda6                  /data                   ext3            noatime                     0 2

/dev/hdb1                  /media                  ext3            noatime                     0 2

/dev/cdrom                 /mnt/cdrom              iso9660         noauto,rw,user              0 0

/dev/sda1                  /mnt/maxtor             ext3            noauto,rw,user,exec,sync    0 0

/dev/sda2                  /mnt/maxtor             auto            noauto,rw,user,exec,sync    0 0

//Fireball-Main/content    /mnt/Escient            smbfs           noauto,rw,user,exec,sync    0 0

none                  /proc                   proc            defaults                    0 0
```

Thanks!

----------

## cgmd

Ah-ha! It's a 2 gb samba limitation, unless smbfs is mounted with the lfs flag!

Using the lfs flag solves the problem for my 4gb back up file. 

Next question, though, what is the upper limit of file size when using the lfs flag??

Anyone know?

Thanks!

----------

## Lucractius

No real limit if you split the archive file into suitable sized sections  :Smile: 

This is one of those tricks thats well worth learning since it comes in handy more often than yould think these days with big hdds & gigabit networking.

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## think4urs11

 *cgmd wrote:*   

> Next question, though, what is the upper limit of file size when using the lfs flag?

 

Wikipedia knows everything  :Wink: 

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## cgmd

 *Think4UrS11 wrote:*   

>  *cgmd wrote:*   Next question, though, what is the upper limit of file size when using the lfs flag? 
> 
> Wikipedia knows everything 

 

Good point!

Thanks!!

----------

