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Ask the Wizard Questions

What is the maximum file size that can be saved from an EDT edit?

The Question is:

Dear Wizards,

  1. Does EDT limit the size of file it can save after edit ?
  2. What is the maximum file size that can be saved from an EDT edit ?

I have a 35 MB file I want to edit and save my changes, but I get an error "work file..."

The system has disk quotas disabled and the system account is editing the file.

Just pointing me to the documentation would be great !


The Answer is:

EDT and/or TPU/EVE (with the EDT emulation) both create a new version of the file being editted. What kind of file is this 35MB file? Editors are typically used to edit sequential files. Many large files are indexed files (or database files).

EDT reads the input file and uses a work file to hold data structures containing the records. The work file is placed in the SYS$SCRATCH directory, with an extension of .JOU. It'll be larger than the source file. Perhaps you've simply run out of space on that disk?

To modify a file in place, you'll need to use a different utility.

Rough rule of thumb (derived from experience rather than documentation).

For EDT you will require disk space for work files of at least 3-4 TIMES the size of the input file in order to edit. So, you will need of the order of 250,000 blocks available to edit this file, possibly more (For a file of this size, I would also pack a lunch and take a good book to read while you're waiting for EDT to jump around the file ;-) TIP - try to work through the file from top to bottom, don't back up. This will be *substantially* faster.

Using TPU on this file, you will wait quite a while for the whole file to be read, but after the initial wait performance will be much better than EDT. You will require about 2-3 times the size of the file in free diskspace and a pagefile quota and VIRTUALPAGECNT of around 100,000 blocks. Make sure your pagefile is more than 250,000 blocks! I've seen numerous system hangs due to pagefile depletion resulting from a system manager attempting to edit a large file. The usual scenario is:

Assume VIRTUALPAGECNT > pagefile size (dangerous, but common)

    $ EDIT largefile
    EXQUOTA - page file quota exceeded

*I'm* the system manager, I can fix that!

    UAF> MODIFY ME/PGFLQUOTA=more than pagefile size

    $ EDIT largefile

hmmm, that's odd, this system isn't responding anymore ;-)