[SWLUG] How to cope with superlarge file

[Dave Cridland]

On Mon Dec 12 20:49:40 2005, Julian Hall wrote:
> Neil Jones wrote:
> 
>> Hi Folks,
>> 
>> Anyone got any ideas on this one. I am exploring an idea.  One of 
>> the possible options involves
>> downloading a .tar file that is around 300 _Giga_ bytes in size.
>> 
> ouch, big file indeed.  Can you possibly open it at source rather 
> than download and then open it?

Ah, good point.

wu-ftpd (possibly amongst others, possibly only with patches) allowed 
you to "cd" into a tar file over FTP. Which is quite cute. So 
depending on *how* you're accessing the file, you might be able to do 
something similar.

Otherwise, the idea of downloading a bit of it is quite nice, except 
that tar files are designed for Tape, and so, if I recall, you'd need 
to scan through the thing until you found the bits you wanted - 
there's no index to help you, unlike a Zip.

Dave.
-- 
           You see things; and you say "Why?"
   But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?"
    - George Bernard Shaw