Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!gatech!bloom-beacon!husc6!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!ucbvax!vax135!whb From: whb@vax135.UUCP (Wilson H. Bent) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: stupidity in directory management? Message-ID: <1826@vax135.UUCP> Date: Fri, 17-Jul-87 13:13:36 EDT Article-I.D.: vax135.1826 Posted: Fri Jul 17 13:13:36 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jul-87 14:55:52 EDT References: <603@nonvon.UUCP> <23047@sun.uucp> Reply-To: whb@vax135.UUCP (Wilson H. Bent) Distribution: na Organization: Not Organized Lines: 24 Summary: How/when does BSD shrink directories? In article <23047@sun.uucp> guy%gorodish@Sun.COM (Guy Harris) writes: >Now, if you fill up a directory with lots of files and then delete >the files, in most versions of UNIX the directory will still be the >same size, although most of the space will be free. In 4.3BSD, the >OS will shrink the directory file under certain circumstances. Can someone go into more detail on this feature? This is the first time I've ever heard of any OS which was willing and able to compact the directory. The method I use to 'shrink' a directory with lost of unused slots (either 4.2BSD or SysV) is to to the every-popular cpio move: cd (parent of jumbo) find jumbo -depth -print | cpio -pdlm teensy rm -r jumbo mv teensy jumbo # just to get the names right! Of course, I've yet to find a BSD find which understands "-depth"... I don't usually do this, even on greatly dynamic directories such as /usr/spool/lpr - the benifits aren't all that great. -- Wilson H. Bent, Jr. ... ihnp4!hoh-2!whb AT&T - Bell Laboratories (201) 949-1277 Disclaimer: My company has not authorized me to issue a disclaimer.