Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!ptsfa!ames!amdcad!sun!gorodish!guy From: guy@gorodish.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: stupidity in directory management? Message-ID: <23047@sun.uucp> Date: Thu, 9-Jul-87 13:35:59 EDT Article-I.D.: sun.23047 Posted: Thu Jul 9 13:35:59 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jul-87 01:45:03 EDT References: <603@nonvon.UUCP> Sender: news@sun.uucp Distribution: na Lines: 22 > Am I mistaken about the way directories are arranged, about identifying > rm-ed entries? Yes. In the V7 file system, as used by most UNIX versions, directory entries are all the same size, and it's trivial for the OS to reuse the slots formerly occupied by entries that have been freed. In fact, it does so. Either your vendor has screwed up royally - which is extremely unlikely, since few people dink with that code - or you're misinterpreting something. In the 4.2BSD file system, directory entries are not the same size, but the OS still reuses the space occupied by freed entries as best it can; it will compact directory blocks as needed, shuffling entries to make discontiguous unused areas contiguous. 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. Guy Harris {ihnp4, decvax, seismo, decwrl, ...}!sun!guy guy@sun.com