holes in files

[Dan Bernstein]

In article <2809 at cirrusl.UUCP> dhesi%cirrusl at oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
> In <8432:Dec1622:40:0790 at kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
> brnstnd at kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:
>    I want to make sure that blocks 17 through 22 (expressed in byte
>    sizes) will be guaranteed not to run out of space when I write to
>    them. You're saying that I should have no way to make this
>    guarantee.
> Well, "df" works nicely.

Is ``reliability'' a dead concept?

What do you propose I do if the disk has just a bit more memory than I
need? df works nicely only if the system does not, in fact, run out of
space, and then I might as well not bother checking.

Do you write software this way?

---Dan