topic Re: How many files per directory in Operating System - Linux

How many files per directory

Ragni Singh — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 11:32:13 GMT

Hi All, I have a Dl380 running AS 3, update 8. we are running ext3 on our server. Can anyone tell me how many files per directory the OS will support?

Thanks and point will be assigned.

Re: How many files per directory

Alpha977 — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:36:13 GMT

Hello!

i don't have idea, but i belive the limit is only your diskspace.

I hope i'm not wrong, but in ext3 this limit doesn't exist.

Re: How many files per directory

Ivan Ferreira — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 13:29:31 GMT

You can create as many files as you want into any directory for a specific file system as log as you have free inodes.

You can check the inode usage with df -i. You can use dumpe2fs to view the number of inodes for a file system (ext2/ext3).

Re: How many files per directory

Jeroen Peereboom — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:27:05 GMT

It used to have a performance penalty if you have too many files in one directory.
I don't know how many (thousands?) and if this is still true.

JP

Re: How many files per directory

Ragni Singh — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 13:20:13 GMT

In Solaris there is a limitation on the number of subdirectories that can be created, is that not the case with Linux? How many inodes can be created before hiting a limit.

Thaks and points will be assigned.

Re: How many files per directory

Patrick Terlisten — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 13:56:04 GMT

Each file or directory need at least one inode, so the number of file / directories is limited by the number of free inodes, visible with the "df -i" command (as Ivan said).

Regards,
Patrick

Re: How many files per directory

Ivan Ferreira — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 08:15:05 GMT

I don't find anywhere the information about a specific directory limits. The inode limit is a fact. Anyway, too many files or directories on just one directory will affect the performance a lot. If you want to do that, consider the use of directory index:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ext3_Filesystem_Tips