64 bit maximum file size

[Chong Yu Meng]

Hi all,

First off, a Happy Chinese New Year to all members on this list ! This
is supposedly the year of the Golden Pig (or Fire Pig, depending on who
you ask), which is especially auspicious because it only comes around
once every 60 years!

Here's my question: I read somewhere that the maximum file size for
32-bit ext3 filesystems is 2GB, and that for 64-bit Linux it should
reach into the terabytes! I checked this up on Wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems) and the entry
for ext3 does not differentiate between 32-bit and 64-bit processors,
which leads me to think that that my initial information, though it
sounds plausible, is probably wrong. I know that there are definitely
differences in addressable memory, but that refers to how much RAM you
can plug into a system, not to file size limits -- or am I mistaken?

Anyway, the reason why this is important to me is because I'm trying to
find some way to work around a problem with the wife's email: She likes
to keep archives going back 3 to 5 years, not because of Sarbanes-Oxley,
but because her "friends" just love to dig up dirt that is literally
years old! The problem is complicated by the fact that she is in
marketing, so she regularly gets huge attachments containing graphics
and videos. So far, the total disk space used by her for email alone is
fast approaching 10GB.    

I'm thinking of routing her mail to an IMAP server, so she doesn't have
to fill up her laptop hard disk with crap. For Linux systems, dealing
with GB's of data is infinitely more reliable than huge Outlook PST
files. My only concern is, some of her folders are HUGE, so, I need
something that can store perhaps 10GB of data in a single file.

Thanks for any help!

Regards,
pascal chong