RE: [PHP] Re: File Random Access

-----Original Message----- From: David Robley [mailto:robleyd@paradise.net.nz] I'm going to stick my neck out here - as I understand it, this is not an omission in php, rather it is a restriction of the underlying OS/file system. <Extends neck more> To the best of my knowledge, neither the FAT based system of M$DOS or e2fs under *nix will allow random access _to the contents of a specific file_ without the need to read/rewrite the entire file. Is there in fact any file system that allows this? ---- All of the file systems I have ever worked with over the last 25 years allow random read/writes (via calls similar to fseek() ); however, random writes involve fixed-length blocks if you want to re-write in place. PHPs fseek() will allow you to do random read/writes on fixed length blocks just like the underlying C call. Variable length blocks (say, those ending in random new lines) are by definition non-deterministic; therefore re-writes in place are impossible without OS help in inter-block jumps/relinks and the subsequent waste of file space. The Pick O/S from a long time back allowed something like this if I remember right (Pick Systems is now RainingData markets a high-end database) . Mark C.