review request: 2TB disk limit in disks chapter

[Simon L. Nielsen]

On 2004.09.13 14:13:46 -0700, Brooks Davis wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 13, 2004 at 10:49:58PM +0200, Simon L. Nielsen wrote:
> > On 2004.09.13 13:21:07 -0700, Brooks Davis wrote:
> >
> > > +      &man.bsdlabel.8, &man.disklabel.8, &man.fdisk.8, and
> > 
> > Isn't disklabel just a link to the local label (bsdlabel/sunlabel
> > etc.) now?
> 
> The rest of the file seems to list both of them and the limitation
> applies to 4.x where there is only disklabel.  I don't have a strong
> oppinion on this one.

Yes, it seems some parts there should be revised wrt. to making
bsdlabel the default (and perhaps to document the sunlabel etc. also)
but thats for another time...

I think there should just be a short note that it's called disklabel
in 4.X - I added a suggestion below.

> > > +      sectors.  This usually translates to a 2TB limit on disk size.
> > > +      For larger disks, &man.gpt.8 partitions may be used.</para>
> > 
> > Shouldn't that be "2TB limits on partition size.", since you can AFAIR?
> > make multiple <2TB partitions on one "disk"(/RAID)?
> 
> It's more complicated then that, which means I need to revise this
> documentation.  In bsdlabel, the size of the disk in sectors is also
> recorded capping the format at 2TB.  In fdisk, the format appears to
> limit the partition size to 2TB and the offset to 2TB so around 4TB.
> This doesn't work at the moment because fdisk doesn't correctly use
> 64-bit types internally. sunlabel appears to allow up to 16TB disks with
> 2TB partitions.

Ok, fun fun :-/.

> Index: chapter.sgml
> ===================================================================
> RCS file: /home/dcvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/disks/chapter.sgml,v
> retrieving revision 1.220
> diff -u -p -r1.220 chapter.sgml
> --- chapter.sgml	25 Aug 2004 10:33:59 -0000	1.220
> +++ chapter.sgml	13 Sep 2004 21:12:20 -0000
> @@ -202,6 +202,15 @@
>        case, the drive will be added simply as
>        <filename>/dev/da1e</filename>.</para>
>  
> +    <para>Due to the use of 32-bit integers to store the number of sectors
> +      &man.bsdlabel.8; is limited to 2^32-1 sectors per disk or 2TB

Perhaps "&man.bsdlabel.8; (called &man.disklabel.8; in &os; 4.X) is..."

> +      in most cases.  The &man.fdisk.8; format is allows a starting
                                                  ^^ that should probably be removed.

> +      sector of no more than 2^32-1 and a length of no more than 2^32-1,
> +      limiting partitions to 2TB and disks to 4TB in most cases.  The
> +      &man.sunlabel.8; format is limited to 2^32-1 sectors per parition
s/parition/partition/

> +      and 8 partitions for a total of 16TB. larger disks, &man.gpt.8

s/. larger/.  For larger/ and a missing ; in the entity.

> +      partitions may be used.</para>
> +

OK, I think I'm done playing doc pendant today ;).

-- 
Simon L. Nielsen
FreeBSD Documentation Team
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