RE: FreeBSD core dumps when wrapping big files!

Joey Mukherjee wrote:
> I have tried taking random files out and really the only difference  
> seems to be size.  I have narrowed down to a magic number, though.   
> When the file in my starpack to be wrapped is greater than 67107626,  
> but smaller than 67117434, it will core regardless of the files  
> inside.  I have tried with several different files removed and added  
> to get to this range.  Its harder than it looks to narrow this down!   

I have no idea if this is coincidence, but 2^25 == 67108864.

Out of curiosity, what are the resultant sizes of the starpack?

> (As an aside: Does anyone know of an easy way to create a file of an  
> exact size?)

Any random file?  Yes, open / seek / write 1 char / close works on most
systems.  However, this may leave you with a sparse file (depends on fs), and
I'm not sure if that will perturb your results.

	set file test.txt
	set size [expr 2<<25-1]
	set fid [open $file w]
	seek $fid $size
	puts $fid "" ; # just a newline
	close $fid

Jeff