#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use File::Glob ':glob';

my $dir = shift || "/etc";
my $max = shift || 10000;
my $entries = 0;
while (glob("$dir/*")) {
    last if (++$entries > $max);
}
print($entries, " items under $dir\n");

##</code><code>##

  time globbug.pl /etc 20000
279 items under /etc

real	0m0.00s
user	0m0.00s
sys	0m0.00s

  time globbug.pl /etc 280  
281 items under /etc

real	0m0.15s
user	0m0.09s
sys	0m0.06s