Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:20:08 -0500, Alain wrote:
> 
>> Ever heard of "sparse" files?
> 
> Yes.  Old hand at NetWare; didn't know that Windows filesystems supported 
> sparse files.

Yah, it does. Well, NTFS does, at least. Indeed, fundamental parts of 
the system (like the USN journal) rely on the fact that you can delete 
blocks off the start of a file and recover the space used therein.

Unlike UNIX, it's not just a matter of seeking around. You have to open 
the file as a sparse file, then you have to say "hey, this area is 
sparse" rather than (say) just writing all zeros to the blocks or something.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     Remember the good old days, when we
     used to complain about cryptography
     being export-restricted?

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