Burning DVD with files>4GB from console

[Joerg Schilling]

>My backup script split filesystem dumps to files with size of 4,37 GB (4
>588 544 kB). It's just an optimal size to fill out DVDs. At this moment
>I have to burn them from windows via smb-link becuase I didn't manage to
>do this task from FreeBSD console due to 2GB/4GB filesize restrictions
>(growisofs). I'm using freeware CDBurnerXP to burn my backups 

What "limitations" are you thinking of?

Growisofs is based on mkisofs which is part of cdrtools.
Mkisofs supports large files since a long time (~ 8 years).


>I never had a problem writing huge files.  But I did have a problem
>subsequently reading it with Windows XP.  Maybe the file size
>restriction is a Windows thing. 

>From the information I have, MS-WIN handles large files correctly.
What problems do you have?


>Not too say you're .iso images can't be >2GB/4GB, but I'm pretty sure
>the ISO9660 standard is limited to a 2GB maximum file size (for files
>within the .iso).  You must use UDF to burn files of greater size.  
>mkisofs(8) seems to support this, if only in alpha/hybrid stage: 

The ISO-9660 standard is limited to 8 TB for the max. filesystem size as well 
as for the size of a single file. Mkisofs supports single files up to 4 GB
since ~ Y2000 and it suppports files up to 8 TB since 2 years.


>growisofs will write 3 files to the DVD just as easily as one. The magic
>of growisofs is that it invokes mkisofs on the fly. And also that
>cdrecord had obnoxious (and broken) licensing in years past when I last
>tried it. 

Cdrecord alwas had and still has a free license. There is nothing broken 
with cdrtools/cdrecord. There is however a big social problem with the
anti-social habbit and propaganda from Debian. Fortunately, cdrtools is not
related to Debian, so where is your problem?

Growisofs depends on mkisofs and mkisofs is part of cdrtools, so you need 
cdrtools anyway.

>1) I expect the problem is with mkisofs version 2.01 that is used in
>FreeBSD (at least in 7.0), but I haven't attempted to confirm this.
>Growisofs is supposed to handle large files, and so are recent
>versions of mkisofs. The author of mkisofs considers 2.01 to be
>obsolete. Perhaps installing a newer mkisofs is the solution (e.g.
>sysutils/cdrtools-devel appears to be fairly recent)? 

mkisofs-2.01 is more than 4 years old. It is not just obsolete but extremely 
outdated. Since mkisofs-2.01 30-50% of the code has been replaced or added.
Cdrtools is only a few weeks from the next major release and it would be silly 
not to use a recent version.

Jörg

-- 
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