>>>>> On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:07:05 -0400,
      "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@cs.columbia.edu> said:

>> I don't see anything particularly wrong with having it (note I have  
>> not yet reviewed the actual patch), but what's the application usage?

> Copying and/or backing up large, sparse files. 

For example, Microsoft SQL server is using holes (on NTFS) to implement
database snapshots.
-- 
soda