Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!lll-winken!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: unix question: files per directory
Message-ID: <1496@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 23 Apr 89 12:18:12 GMT
References: <24110@beta.lanl.gov> <6576@cbmvax.UUCP> <13577@ncoast.ORG> <11364@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Distribution: na
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 15

>Yep, there are workarounds (xargs, patch the shell to allow very large (64k)
>variables),

It's not always just the shell; it may be the kernel (or whatever
implements "exec").  The Bourne shell has no wired-in limit; most
flavors of UNIX have a limit between 5,120 characters and 20,480
characters.  (SunOS has a limit of 1MB; while the Bourne shell will
cheerfully let you use all of it, the C shell has its own limitations,
alas.)

>but if it were me, I'd really look for a way of breaking
>things up in subdirectories.

This is a good idea, since directory searching gets slower the more
entries there are in a directory.