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From: slootman@dri.nl (Paul Slootman)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: mkdir has stopped working (max. link count)
Message-ID: <1007@dri500.dri.nl>
Date: 21 Apr 91 12:41:57 GMT
References: <4967@nodecg.ncc.telecomwa.oz.au> <285400001@adaptx1>
Organization: DataCount Register Informatici, Wierden, The Netherlands
Lines: 15

In article <285400001@adaptx1> neese@adaptx1.UUCP writes:
>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.

This limit is a consequence of the limit on the number of links a file
may have, which is 1000 (at least it is on the systems I've seen). As
every directory contains a link to itself and its parent, you can't have
more than 998 (sub)directories in any single directory.

While we're on the subject, why is/was this limit imposed? To make sure
some old version fsck / ncheck didn't barf?

Paul.