Path: utzoo!attcan!sobmips!uunet!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!hercules!fernwood!decwrl!shelby!lindy!ucscb.UCSC.EDU!lunatic From: lunatic@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Lunatic) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: Legal subdirectory size under System 5.0.2 Message-ID: <5811@lindy.Stanford.EDU> Date: 16 Nov 89 08:23:54 GMT References: <1989Nov14.021922.21921@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> Sender: news@lindy.Stanford.EDU (News Service) Reply-To: lunatic@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Lunatic) Organization: UCSC Undergrads Lines: 72 In article gt0t+@andrew.cmu.edu (Gregory Ross Thompson) writes: >dhom@cosmos.acs.calpoly.edu (David Hom) writes: >> The other day I was copying stuff into a folder with Prosel-16 (v8.0). After >>about 180 or some files, Prosel told me the subdirectory was too big and quit. >>The subdirectory was 12 blocks long. >> I launched the finder and tried to copy the files into the folder and it >>worked. All 227 files got into one folder. I quit back to Prosel. The >>directory was now 18 blocks long, but if I tried to cat the directory, Prosel >>told me the directory was too big. >> Seems like Prosel-16 doesn't like directories larger than 12 blocks. Anyone >>know why this is? What is the actual limit for number of files in a >>directory under System 5.0.2? >> Thanks. > > I believe that in the ProSEL 16 manual it says it can only handle a >certain number of files in a subdirectory. Not that ProDOS can't >handle it, just that the ProSEL Utilities can't. From "BASIC Programming with ProDOS," (c) Apple Computer, Inc., 1984 p. 42: Directory File Size ------------------- The number of files that fit into a directory other than a volume directory is limited only by the amount of space on the disk. The size of a directory file is determined by the number of files it contains. The first block of disk space used by a directory can hold up to 12 files. Each subsequent block used by a directory can hold up to 13 files. Thus a directory with 27 files in it is three blocks long (12 files in first block, 13 in second block, 2 in third block). "volume," or "root" directories are limited to 51 files. ][ have 244 files in my *:System:Fonts: directory on my hard disk, making the directory itself 18 blocks in size. I copied them to there using the Finder under System 5.0.2, and I can open the folder and access all of them (albeit slowly) while in Finder. ___ |he limit on the number of files in a directory under Prosel (204?) is based on Prosel's inability to show more than a certain number of files on the screen at the same time during copying, deleting, sorting, etc. operations. Copy II Plus also has a limit, which I believe is 155. WARNING: Do not try to alphabetically sort more than this number of files in a single directory under Copy II Plus! It will not complain when asked to sort the directory, but you will find that all the files past the limit in the original (unsorted) directory have disappeared. Many other applications and utilities have simmilar limits. I would suggest that everyone keeps a maximum of 200 files in any directory unless it is absolutely necessary (such as in the case of a Fonts directory) until programs are available that can access more. BTW: The StandardFile dialog of any GS destop program CAN access more than Prosel can, but I haven't reached its limit yet, if any, so I don't know exactly HOW many more. > >> >> Dave >> dhom@cosmos.acs.calpoly.edu > > -Greg T. -- ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________ ARPA: lunatic@uscsb.UCSC.EDU / ________/ Internet: lunatic%ucscb@ucscc.edu / ____// _ ___ _ UUCP: ...!ucscc!ucscb!lunatic / ___///__ {_} |\| /-\ | ][ {_ GEnie: L.BRUCE (Lunatic Bruce) / __________________________________________________________________/ (: