Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 1 Mar 2001 15:54:25 -0500 (EST) | From | Alexander Viro <> | Subject | Re: Hashing and directories |
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On Sat, 1 Jan 2000, Pavel Machek wrote:
> Hi! > > > I was hoping to point out that in real life, most systems that > > need to access large numbers of files are already designed to do > > some kind of hashing, or at least to divide-and-conquer by using > > multi-level directory structures. > > Yes -- because their workaround kernel slowness.
Pavel, I'm afraid that you are missing the point. Several, actually: * limits of _human_ capability to deal with large unstructured sets of objects * userland issues (what, you thought that limits on the command size will go away?) * portability
The point being: applications and users _do_ know better what structure is there. Kernel can try to second-guess them and be real good at that, but inability to second-guess is the last of the reasons why aforementioned strategies are used.
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