Yeah, with Solaris there are problems reading files over 2GB on older versions of Perl (5.00*), check out this node for more on that.

As far as general handling of large files goes, I would like to know what you are doing with the file. Following TMTOWTDI, the way you do this could depend on what you are doing. If you are prcessing one large file one time to look for something you could do it one way and if you are doing a small process on a large file many times over there could be another way. How about a little more info on your application?

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Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.

--P. J. O'Rourke