Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!chinet!ward
From: ward@chinet.chi.il.us (Ward Christensen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Large number of files slows machine.
Message-ID: <7192@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 17 Dec 88 05:59:16 GMT
References: <8545@j.cc.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: ward@chinet.chi.il.us (Ward Christensen)
Organization: Chinet - Public Access Unix
Lines: 14

In article <8545@j.cc.purdue.edu> tim@j.cc.purdue.edu (Timothy Lange) writes:
>I am dealing with an user that has around 650 files in a subdirectory.
>We noticed that accessing the files at the bottom of the DIR listing
>is much slower than the files near the beginning.  The performance
>really drops off at about the 512th file.
  That's an easy one.  I have had it happen many times.  (of course it
wasn't easy at FIRST  ;-).
  What is happening is the fragmentation of your directory resulting in
many seeks while processing the directory.
  THe solution is very simple: fewer files; or more realistically for your
application: compress the disk such as with Norton Advanced Utility's SD
(Speed Disk).  This brings the pieces of the directory together, and acts
quite fast.
  Good luck!