Aucbvax.6017
fa.info-vax
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!info-vax
Mon Feb  1 10:22:35 1982
Extended Filenames under UNIX OS
>From mhtsa!mjs@Berkeley Mon Feb  1 10:18:56 1982
While the comparison is unfair, it is at least illustrative: OS/360/370
restricts you to 8 characters per pathname component (still!).  More to
the point, though, I agree that 14 characters has cramped my naming style
on several occasions, but would probably spend weeks trying to fill 80
characters with just one component!  Perhaps a happier medium
(unix-wizards, please take note) would be 30 characters (or 28, if the
inode number stored in the directory entries is expanded to 32 bits).
This is basically fairly easy to do in the operating system, but there
is a whole lot of software out there which is NOT parameterized with
respect to DIRSIZ (from whichever #include file it comes).  It is a big
job, though I expect that the next (current?) BSD group could pull it
off with no major holes left unfilled.  Also, there is the cost of the
(doubled) directory entries, more directories which have indirect
blocks, and general performance degradation.  Is it worth it?  I dunno.
Does anyone out there have any useful statistics for the net(s)?

	Marty Shannon, Jr.
	Bell Labs, MH, NJ
	(201) 582-6272
	(mail to mhtsa!mjs is more likely to reach me, tho')