[Info-mtools] Error when operating on large files

[Chris Lamb]

[please retain all CCs upon replying, I am not subscribed to this list]

Hi,

I'm the maintainer of the "mtools" package in Debian. The following
bug report was just filed there which I will quote in full, but it can
also be viewed here:

        https://bugs.debian.org/949665

> Running e.g. mdir -i $SOMEFILE@@$LARGEOFFSET fails when the offset
> exceeds around 2GB. The error message is:
> 
> | seek: Invalid argument
> | init :: could not read boot sector
> | Cannot initialize '::'
>
> Using strace one can see that mtools tries to seek the image to a
> negative offset that results from treating the desired offset as a
> signed 32bit number.
[…]
> Most likely, it can be fixed by adding -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 to the
> CFLAGS.

I then briefly asked whether this would be suitable for inclusion
upstream, to which the reporter was in agreement. Please see https://
bugs.debian.org/949665#15 for more on this, including the sketchings
of a patch.


Best wishes,

-- 
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     : :'  :     Chris Lamb
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