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    Drive space allocation.

    When creating partitioned drives in various Wx OS versions partition size determines the minimum amount of disk space allocated allocated per small file, record, etc. Typically 4K up to 64K. This means that for a large number of small files placed on a very large partition there is a tremendous amount of wasted space.

    1. Being new to Linux can anyone provide information on the way space is allocated on a linux partition, by sector, by groups of sectors (lumps, granules, etc.), typical sector size, 256, 512, 1024, etc?

    2. Iin Linux, can file size exceed the 4Gig limit of non-NTFS files/records in Wx OS versions?

    3. When saving a new file to a fragmented disk when various small files have been deleted leaving a large number of small spaces available on the disk is there a master sector record of these vacancies where direction to the next file segment is located or is the information for the next location stored in the data of the currently being read portion?

    4. When using long file names, exceeding 13 characters in various version of Wx, do additional directory locations get opened to handle the extended file name information? In Wx this is very important in the root level as there is only a limited number of directory entries available. When in a folder this restriction is removed but when the total number of characters in the path become to numerous problems show up when trying to burn CD or DVD backups.

    5. In Wx ZoneAlarm is an effective software firewall helping to secure the user from outside attacks, note the word helping, as well as making it more difficult for legitimate software on the system to access the internet without permission. Is there a similar program available for Lx machines or a way, other than programmin - my programming days ended about the time Wx became popular- to create a similar protection?

    While these are being directed to the Ubuntu group I realize they tend to be generic type questions and should apply to many distros but Kubuntu or Ubuntu
    are presently being considered for my small home/office for use on the server & destops. There are some apps that I must use that will not likely work on an Lx platform but wherever I an I intend to more as far from Wx as possible. For those requiring Wx I will be trying to setup a Wx virtual machine on the Lx base. I will also be needing to share files, printers, etc. between the Wx & Lx platforms.

    I hope this is not to much for a single post but any help will be greatly appreciated. I presently use FF, TB & OO on the Wx platform so those will move to Lx "seamlessly" I hope.

    James

    #2
    Re: Drive space allocation.

    On ReiserFS: http://www.namesys.com/

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      #3
      Re: Drive space allocation.

      some of the questions are difficult to answer, because linux supports several different file systems.
      popular file systems under linux are (each has its pros and cons):
      ext3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext3)
      xfs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xfs)
      reiserfs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiserfs)

      1. ...on the way space is allocated on a linux partition...
      i don't know if this has changed, but hdd sectors hold 512 bytes of data.
      your problem will be the file system's minimum block size.
      that depends on the file system you pick.
      ext3 has a 1k min block size, while xfs has 512b, ...

      2. Iin Linux, can file size exceed the 4Gig limit of non-NTFS files/records in Wx OS versions?
      not sure i understand your question.
      a FAT32 file system will still have the 4gb file size limitation under linux.
      max volume and file size for most linux file systems are today measured in tera or exabytes, though.

      3. When saving a new file to a fragmented disk when various small files have been deleted...
      again, that depends on the file system.
      traditionally, file systems in the unix/linux world revolve around the concept of i-node and use some sort of tree structure.
      see here for a start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inode
      not all file systems work in the same way, though.

      Code:
      4. When using long file names, exceeding 13 characters in various version of Wx...
      i'm not sure i totally understand this either.
      file names can usually be up to 255 chars long (again: file system dependent).
      ttbomk, there is no (set) limitation in the total lenght of a file path, since this is the result of a concatenation.
      problems with cd and dvd are given by the data structures used/needed on those devices (which are still limited).

      5. In Wx ZoneAlarm is an effective software firewall helping to secure the user from outside attacks...
      i really have no clue.

      hope this helps a little bit.
      cheers
      gnu/linux is not windoze

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