I came across a weird problem.

I can copy a >2gb file from a smbfs mounted share to my local ext3 file system. No problems.
Just try copy the sucker *back*. Dies at 2gb every time.

Hmm. [Google][1] finds mention of 2gb filesize limits, but based on old kernels (pre 2.4) and usually in ext2.
So I try a search on smbfs instead. Voila. It’s apparently a known problem if you mount a smbfs filesystem.
The workaround is to use smbclient’s ftp-like interface to transfer the files.

The con is that you can’t use normal _cp_ or what-have-you (even tried rsync), but the pro is that it’s **fast**. Much faster than normal cp, and also no 2gb limit. Guess I will be using smbclient for the file copies in future.

[1]: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=smbfs+2gb+limit&btnG=Google+Search “Google Search”