clipka wrote:
> "If the number of files in a directory exceeds 10000 to 15000 files, the 
> user will normally be warned that operations can last for a long time 
> unless directory indexing is enabled. 

I hate to mention this, but if you put 100,000 files in a directory and then 
delete them all, operations on the directory will still be slow. An 'ls' on 
the empty directory, or even an rmdir, can take several minutes as the 
machine scans thru the directory making sure it is indeed empty before 
deleting it.

> I think the main problem with those is that other file systems don't 
> have them. 

Nonsense. Every modern operating system has them. Macs have had them since 
400K floppies were the norm. NTFS has always (as far as I remember) had 
them. Newer Linux file systems have them (altho IIRC they're sometimes 
organized more as tag/value pairs) - JFS, XFS, Reiser, ZFS, etc. They call 
them "Extended attributes" under Linux. Not surprisingly, they're used 
similarly to how NTFS uses the streams. (Huh. According to wiki, even FAT 
supports them if you use the right kind on NT.)

The biggest problem is that POSIX doesn't support them, so implementors 
aren't sure how to build a non-proprietary interface to them that will be 
accepted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_file_attributes

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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