Re^2: Performance Trap - Opening/Closing Files Inside a Loop

... Many filesystems (e.g., ext2/3) bog down once you start getting more than a hundred or so entries in a directory.

Actually, I have found VFAT to pale in comparison to ext3 and even ext2. ReiserFS should be even better i've heard. YMMV, of course - RAM/processor(s) etc.

Update:

A well-known approach to this 'many files' problem is to create a n-level directory structure based on filenames. File abc goes into a/b/abc, def goes into d/e/def etc. (for n=2). Filenames are then typically randomly generated - and if they're not you can use some transformation to create input for the directory. Reportedly, ReiserFS does this internally.

---Lars

Comment on Re^2: Performance Trap - Opening/Closing Files Inside a Loop

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Re^3: Performance Trap - Opening/Closing Files Inside a Loop by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Dec 10, 2004 at 13:52 UTC
CPAN does something similar. For example, my uploads are placed in http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/R/RK/RKINYON/. Only the few few authors are actually in the authors directory. The rest of us are in the id directory. :-) Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing. Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid. Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence. Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.	[reply]

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Re^3: Performance Trap - Opening/Closing Files Inside a Loop
by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Dec 10, 2004 at 13:52 UTC

http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/R/RK/RKINYON/

Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing.
Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid.
Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence.
Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.

[reply]