ext3 4TB fs limit on amd64 (FAQ?)

[Ralf Gross]

Hi,

I've a question about the max. ext3 FS size. The ext3 FAQ explains that
the limit is 4TB.

http://batleth.sapienti-sat.org/projects/FAQs/ext3-faq.html

| Ext3 can support files up to 1TB. With a 2.4 kernel the filesystem size
is | limited by the maximal block device size, which is 2TB. In 2.6 the
maximum | (32-bit CPU) limit is of block devices is 16TB, but ext3
supports only up | to 4TB.

Other sources claim that the limit is 8TB (RedHat ES). I'm using ubuntu
dapper drake 6.06 with kernel 2.6.15. At the momente I'm running the amd64
port. I successfully created the ext3 FS on a 4,5TB lvm partition
(standard ext3 fs options) and was able to fill the whole fs with data.
Afterwards I checked the data with md5sum and did a fsck, everything seems
to be fine so far.

Was it just luck that I didn't see any data corruption? Can I use ext3 for
fs >4TB<8TB on amd64 these days? I also tried xfs, but unlike ext3 it
repeatable froze the system when I ran the tiobench benchmark.

Ralf