Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!mimsy!oddjob!uwvax!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tektronix!cae780!amdcad!lll-crg!lll-lcc!unisoft!greywolf From: greywolf@unisoft.UUCP (Roan Jon Anderson) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: stupidity in directory management? Message-ID: <458@unisoft.UUCP> Date: Tue, 21-Jul-87 17:07:30 EDT Article-I.D.: unisoft.458 Posted: Tue Jul 21 17:07:30 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 24-Jul-87 03:31:10 EDT References: <603@nonvon.UUCP> Reply-To: greywolf@unisoft.UUCP (The Grey Wolf) Distribution: na Organization: UniSoft Systems; Berkeley, CA Lines: 55 Keywords: mv-ing dirs made a bit easier... Summary: remkdir made simple... Sender:unisoft!greywolf (The Grey Wolf) In article <603@nonvon.UUCP> mc68020@nonvon.UUCP (root) writes: > > I am frustrated as all hell! At least on the two versions of UNIX with >which I have direct experience, the directory management is all fu**ed up! > > After a file is removed, it's "slot" in the directory isn't re-used! The >damned directory keeps growing larger and LARGER. To make matters worse, >there appears to be no rational way to write a C program to "compact" >the directory, leaving us with the highly undesirable chore of MVing >everything OUT of the damned directory, rmdir'ing, re-mkdir'ing it, and >moving everything back in again. This wastes LOTS of time on the system, >not to mention the operator/sysadmin's time. > > QUERY: Why this stupidity in the first place, and **WHY** hasn't >AT&T or BERSERKELEY ***DONE*** something to fix it??????? I mean really, >it is a trivial matter to identify an rm-ed entry in a directory. Either >allow the directory management system to use the first available slot, >creating a new slot only if necessary, or develop some mechanism for >rationally compacting these messes from time to time. > > Can those who are in positions of knowledge please explain, without >condescension and rudery, what the story is here, please? Am I mistaken >about the way directories are arranged, about identifying rm-ed entries? > > INformation, please! ------ Well, not sure about the actual re-use of a slot, but you only have to remove one directory. Try this, and see how long it takes...it shouldn't take long... #! /bin/sh - while $# :; do /bin/mkdir foo /bin/mv $1/* $1/.??* foo /bin/rmdir $1 /bin/mv foo $1 done The time it takes should be minimal, unless you have exceedingly large directories, in which case it might take longer... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Faster than pure assembly code... More powerful than kill -9... able to unmount busy file systems in a single call... ______ it's a (long) word... / | | \ it's a (back)plane... \=#==#=/ \| |/ it's... \==/ \/ SUPERUSER!!!!