Re: [boost] Random Access to Files (RAF) - any interest ?

From: Tomas Puverle (Tomas.Puverle_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-05-24 11:02:43

> OT: hypothetical future flesystem may
> use these 128 bits to provide hierarchical
> structuring of the data, ala IPv6.

That is an interesting idea.

> More realistic feature request would be support
> for sparse files.
> 
> The empty areas could be used for appending
> new data efficiently, normal operations on RAF
> should ignore then.
> 
> Support for sparse files is available in Win32 via
> DeviceIoControl(FSCTL_QUERY_ALLOCATED_RANGES).
> 
> I have vague feeling Linux has something like that too.

ZFS on Solaris 10 has an extension to the the Posix lseek() flags, SEEK_DATA 
and SEEK_HOLE.  It makes it easy to find the holes in your files.  I may be 
wrong here but I don't think Linux supports this.