Possible Duplicate:
VERY large text files and Snow Leopard
Open massive file on Mac?
I have a 16GB sql database backup I have just taken, what software can I open it with for Mac?
I have tried TextMate, but that just fails completely by just opening a blank page and not attempting to open it. Any software will do (raw text/UI).
Assuming the SQL file was not created on that Mac, and depending on what you want to do with its data: just install the database software on that Mac, and import it into that new database?
There's a Vim plugin that allows it to open large files.
Then you could either go with the CLI version already installed or use MacVim.
HexFiend is the best application I've found for extremely large files as it does not try to store the entire file in memory. While more of a hex editor than a text editor it may be more than workable given that it works very, very quickly.
How about:
less file.sql
from a terminal window? You can also use grep, etc.
Note that you can't edit with less. For navigating the file you can use arrow keys, space to scroll to the next page, b to go back one page. With / you can enter a search and then use n and N to jump between results, and finally press q to exit. Starting with less -S file.sql doesn't wrap lines and might be useful for SQL files with really long lines. All commands and options are explained in less' man page.
BBEdit can probably handle it (so should TextWrangler), but unless you really need to get inside and make some changes to the data, re-importing into the proper database management software is going to be your best bet.
Terminal -> 'vi'
