lseek beyond EOF se-man-tic gripe
Andy Tannenbaum
trb at floyd.UUCP
Wed Aug 24 06:27:33 AEST 1983
According to the 4.1bsd (7th Edition) lseek(2) man page:
Seeking far beyond the end of a file, then writing, creates a
gap or `hole', which occupies no physical space and reads as
zeros.
Pray tell, just how far beyond EOF must one seek before this feature
takes effect, and if not physical space, does it occupy some
transcendental space? ;-)
At least this man page tells you that the feature exists, the System
III/V manuals just ignore it.
Andy Tannenbaum Bell Labs Whippany, NJ (201) 386-6491
More information about the Comp.unix.wizards
mailing list