Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000 14:17:40 -0800 (PST) From: Shashi Joshi <shashi_kant_joshi@yahoo.com> To: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>, questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: filesystem question Message-ID: <20001106221740.16951.qmail@web6102.mail.yahoo.com>
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Thanks Mike for your reply. I think I made a slight oversight in my question. --- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> wrote: > Shashi Joshi <shashi_kant_joshi@yahoo.com> types: > > Hi, > > What is the limit on number of files/dir/subsirs on a filesystem? > > Yes. Each one takes up an inode, and there are a limited number of > inodes in a filesystem. You can set it when the filesystem is created > if you need to. See the newfs man page. I meant, is there a limit on a DIRECTORY having certain number of files/sub dirs under it? If yes, how does one find it out? And, also, doing df should be an easy way to find out how many inodes available and max for a FS, right? > > e.g. If I have a flat file database which may result in a few > thousand > > files on a FS, (say 5 files per user), and will also result in > creating > > deleting and of course read/write of files. On the other hand, if I > > install MySql or some other database, then I have only say 10-20 > files > > (including index files) and now the traffic passes through the > database > > thread. I mean instead of reading the OS files directly, the web > page > > will cause a DB query, which will pass file contents (data) to it. > > > > Which one is better/How do they compare? > > Unless the files are completely unrelated, use the SQL server. If > there is some file written to by multiple transactions, you'll have The files are related only by the fact that each user has a certain number of files, web page, uploaded files, mail etc. No apparent connection as such. So, should I use a top level dir per user and then all teh files in it per user or use a database? In teh flat file system, if a user has an average of 200 files (one per mail, one per page, and some uploaded files/pics, and I have 10,000 users that is 2,000,000 files + the dirs/subdirs! If I put stuff in DB, it might come down to 20-50 big fat files. I could get a 70G drive SCSI to handle the big files. I hope FreeBSD can take 70+ GB SCSI drives, can it? > If you use a server that supports transactions, you can make the same > magic apply over an entire interaction, and back things out by simply > aborting the transaction. MySql has no transactions :-( Also, is it true that files are searched for in a dir sequentially? I mean if you 5000 files in a dir, and do cat filename, will the system read the dir sequentially to find where the filename is, and then get its inode ... ? This would mean that the more files you have in a dir, the slower the access will become? Thanks, Shashi __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. All in one Place. http://shopping.yahoo.com/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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