Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!uw-beaver!milton!sumax!polari!rwing!eskimo!nanook
From: nanook@eskimo.celestial.com (Robert Dinse)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: mkdir has stopped working - SCO Xen
Summary: Directory Limit
Message-ID: <336@eskimo.celestial.com>
Date: 21 Apr 91 01:21:44 GMT
References: <4967@nodecg.ncc.telecomwa.oz.au> <285400001@adaptx1>
Organization: ESKIMO NORTH (206) 367-3837 SEATTLE WA.
Lines: 17

In article <285400001@adaptx1>, neese@adaptx1.UUCP writes:
# #/* ---------- "mkdir has stopped working - SCO Xen" ---------- */
# #One of my 386 machines running Xenix 2.3.2 has suddenly refused to let
# #any user, including root, from making a directory.
# #I can create files ok.
# 
# Check the amount of files/directories in the directory you are trying to
# create one in.  If the total is more than 999, the mkdir command will fail.
# You can only have up to 1000 entries in each subdirectory.  I don't know
# whether this is a file system limit or a limit imposed by mkdir.

     It appears to be a file system limit. I took a "secure mkdir" that was
posted on the net a while back, mutilated it to add yet more security, and
I still can't make more than 999 directories in a directory. My original
intent wasn't to fix that particular problem, but the fact that it does the
same thing (and it calls mknod directly) tells me it's something in the
operating system and not just the mkdir command.