Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!uc!nic.MR.NET!thor.acc.stolaf.edu!mike
From: mike@thor.acc.stolaf.edu (Mike Haertel)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: stat of i-node
Message-ID: <5321@thor.acc.stolaf.edu>
Date: 2 Sep 89 18:52:49 GMT
References: <172@bmers58.UUCP> <19362@mimsy.UUCP> <179@bmers58.UUCP>
Reply-To: mike@thor.stolaf.edu ()
Organization: St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
Lines: 17

In article <179@bmers58.UUCP> davem@bmers58.UUCP (Dave Mielke) writes:
>In article <19362@mimsy.UUCP> chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) writes:
>>fstat() is a very cheap operation.  stat() is a bit more expensive, but
>>(with name cacheing) not all that bad.
>The problem with fstat is that it requires an open which also does a
>name lookup. This proves to be very slow when the directories get
>large. I need a way to get the information that stat would return
>without the expense of a name lookup.

stat() in a simple file name in the current directory ought to be pretty
fast.  in 4.3BSD if you stat() the files of a directory in sequence of
the actual directory entries, the kernel remembers where the previous
search left off and does even better.
-- 
Mike Haertel <mike@stolaf.edu>
``There's nothing remarkable about it.  All one has to do is hit the right
  keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.'' -- J. S. Bach