Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!ukc!dcl-cs!bath63!pes
From: pes@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Smee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: directory limit
Message-ID: <2424@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk>
Date: 8 Apr 88 11:16:51 GMT
References: <8804011616.AA00787@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: pes@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Smee)
Organization: AUCC c/o University of Bath
Lines: 23


TOS dir limits are like MS/DOS ones.  Part of the 'formatting info' contained
in the boot sector of a flopsy is an indication of how many sectors (7) are
used for the root dir.  This allows up to 112 (as I recall) entries in the
root directory.  Subdirectories are handled like normal files, so are not
length limited, so there is no limit to the number of files in a subdir
(other than the obvious one that there's a limit to how much trash you can
put onto a flopsy at all).

HOWEVER:

If a subdirectory gets big, it hurts performance, both within the machine,
and at the user-interface level, where you've got to find the file you want
among the bunch.

AND:

The ST operating system does NOT shrink subdirectories.  If you create a
subdir holding (say) 256 files (takes 16 sectors) and then delete all but
one of the files, the subdir file itself still stays 16 sectors long.
To shrink it back to the 1 sector which would now be needed, you have to
create a new subdir, move the file into it, delete the old subdir, and
juggle the names.  (Unless someone wants to write a PD directory compactor.)