[Samba] 2 GB Limit when writing to smbfs filesystems

[Vizitiu, Ciprian]

> 
> I'm running RedHat 8.0 with samba-2.2.7-5.8.0 (installed from RedHat
> distribution)
> 
> When I use cpio to write a backup (> 2GB) to a smbfs 
> filesystem, I get the
> error: File size limit exceeded
> I get the same error when I linux copy (cp) a file (> 2GB) 
> from a Linux ext3 filesystem to the smbfs filesystem. The 
> smbfs filesystem is mounted from a Windows 2000 Professional 
> workstation.
> 
> After experiencing the problem, I installed an NFS client on 
> the Windows 2000 Professional workstation (for testing 
> purposes).  Everything works with NFS, but I want to make it 
> work with samba.
> 
> I DO NOT get an error when:
> MS copy from NTFS to samba share (i.e.  copy c:\bigfile
> \\linuxsvr\smbshr\bigfile)
> MS copy from samba share to NTFS (i.e.  copy \\linuxsvr\smbshr\bigfile
> c:\bigfile)
> Linux copy from ext3 to ext3 (i.e. cp -p /home/bigfile1 
> /home/bigfile2) Linux copy from NFS to ext3 (i.e.  cp -p 
> /nfs/bigfile /home/bigfile) Linux copy from ext3 to NFS (i.e. 
>  cp -p /home/bigfile to /nfs/bigfile)
> 
> I ONLY get the error when linux is trying to copy (cp) or 
> write (cpio, tar,
> dd) to a mounted samba filesystem.
> (i.e. mount -t smb //win2k-ws/share /mnt)
> 
> Do I need to install something for linux to treat the mounted 
> share as a CIFS filesystem?

Q: 2GB file limit in samba?
A: No. At this time ( kernel 2.2.4 and samba 2.2.8 ) the limit is in the
kernel code used to access samba not in the samba server. Some patches float
around to for this problem, search for "CIFS smbfs patch". OTOH f u're in 4
back-up, one hint: split or tar -M