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Re: ITP: netpbm




Gareth Pearce wrote:

>> > As for the # of executables in the /bin directory, isn't
>> > there a limit to the number of files and/or directory entries
>> > in any one directory on win32?
>>
>> As has already been said, not past the root. However directory search
>> time is O(N) on FAT, vs (IIRC) O(logN) on NTFS. So directories with many
>> files leads to signficcantly longer lookup times - and thas when the
>> filename is known!.
> 
> 
> My experience - on ntfs ... 


[snip]

> Except in one area.
> cd'ing to the directory in the first place - can take a minute or more, 


NTFS uses a btree to store directory and file information, leading to 
O(logN) lookup times.  If you were doing that on FAT, it would require 
FAR more time.  That's what I meant by saying "directory size is limited 
by your patience" -- lots of files in a directory == long waits for ls, 
find, etc.  It's not as bad on NTFS, but cygwin is used on both NTFS and 
FAT...

--Chuck



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