Re: Problem with large files on different OSes

> I recently came across a very annoying problem, characterised by the  
> following example:
>
> On a recent ubuntu install:
>
> dd if=/dev/zero of=file bs=1300k count=1k
> git commit file -m "Add huge file"
>
>
> The repository can be pulled and pushed successfully to other ubuntu  
> installs, but on Mac OS X, 10.5.7 machine with 4GB ram git pull  
> produces:
>
> remote: Counting objects: 6, done.
> remote: git(1533,0xb0081000) malloc: *** mmap(size=1363152896)  
> failed (error code=12)
> remote: *** error: can't allocate region
> remote: *** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug
> remote: git(1533,0xb0081000) malloc: *** mmap(size=1363152896)  
> failed (error code=12)
> remote: *** error: can't allocate region
> remote: *** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug
> remote: fatal: Out of memory, malloc failed
> error: git upload-pack: git-pack-objects died with error.
> fatal: git upload-pack: aborting due to possible repository  
> corruption on the remote side.
> remote: aborting due to possible repository corruption on the remote  
> side.
> fatal: protocol error: bad pack header
>
>
> The problem appears to be the different maximum mmap sizes available  
> on different OSes. Whic I don't really mind the maximum file size  
> restriction git imposes, this restriction varying from OS to OS is  
> very annoying, fixing this required rewriting history to remove the  
> commit, which caused problems as the commit had already been pulled,  
> and built on, by a number of developers.
>
> If the requirement that all files can be mmapped cannot be easily  
> removed, would be it perhaps be acceptable to impose a (soft?)  
> 1GB(ish) file size limit? I suggest 1GB as all the OSes I can get  
> hold of easily (freeBSD, windows, Mac OS X, linux) support a mmap of  
> size > 1GB.