Re: [PATCH 1/9] Convert pack-objects to size_t

Ramsay Jones [off-list ref] writes:

In a previous comment, I said that (on 32-bit Linux) it was likely
that an object of > 4GB could not be handled correctly anyway. (more
likely > 2GB). This was based on the code from (quite some) years ago.
In particular, before you added the "streaming API". So, maybe a 32-bit
arch _should_ be able to handle objects as large as the LFS API allows.
(Ignoring, for the moment, that I think anybody who puts files of that
size into an SCM probably gets what they deserve. :-P ).

The two patches I commented on, however, changed the type of some
variables from off_t to size_t. In general, the patches did not
seem to make anything worse, but these type changes could potentially
do harm. Hence my comment. (I still haven't tried the patches on my
32-bit Linux system. I only boot it up about once a week, and I would
rather wait until the patches are in the 'pu' branch before testing).

We are in perfect agreement.

I didn't mean to say that it is OK to replace off_t with size_t
without a good reason, especially when the current code (at least
the part I looked at anyway, like the OFS_DELTA part) seems to use
off_t correctly, and your review comments are very much appreciated,
so is the effort started by Martin to take us in the direction of
using types more appropriate than "ulong".