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From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: ls -l
Message-ID: <11673@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 23 Nov 89 16:02:36 GMT
References: <21519@adm.BRL.MIL>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 10

In article <21519@adm.BRL.MIL> SIMSN%NUSDISCS.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu writes:
> What could be the possible reasons that cause ls -l
> to be slow, i.e. one line at a time at 1 sec interval?

Having to look up user names to match the UIDs reported by stat().
This is typically done by a sequential scan of /etc/passwd for EACH
name.  If you have a large /etc/passwd it can be quite painful.

Better solutions have been implemented but I don't think we need
to discuss them in this newsgroup.