*BSD News Article 46137


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From: fsosi@j51.com (Nighthhawk)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: When did this become linux.advocacy
Date: 24 Jun 1995 17:40:30 GMT
Organization: GDT Operation
Lines: 31
Message-ID: <3shime$l2i@news.nynexst.com>
References: <marcus.114.00E9749F@ccelab.iastate.edu> <3s8pet$m65@bonnie.tcd-dresden.de> <3s9vmk$f9p@agate.berkeley.edu> <3sboim$ue@bonnie.tcd-dresden.de> <DAnIFG.7EE@citylink.dinoex.sub.org>
NNTP-Posting-Host: nomad3.nynexst.com

In article <DAnIFG.7EE@citylink.dinoex.sub.org>, peter@citylink.dinoex.sub.org (Peter Much) writes:
|> In article <3sboim$ue@bonnie.tcd-dresden.de>,
|> J Wunsch <joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de> wrote:
|> 
|> >>on comp.os.linux.advocacy) I complained how sluggish I/O felt (30
|> >>seconds to recursively delete a directory in Linux took 45 seconds in
|> >>FreeBSD 2.0_RELEASE).
|> 
|> True. Usually even more, when packing/unpacking complex directory-trees
|> from/into tar-archives.
|> 
|> The other point is: Keep a directory with ~2000 files, and run ls
|> (or ls -l) under linux/ext2. Then run it under *BSD; about Factor 25
|> faster. This seems typically linux/ext2 Filesystem, it increases dir-
|> ectory accesses exponentially in an unfunny way when the #files exceeds
|> about 800.
|> 

That was an old feature in the Linux C library as well as the Linux
kernel. We have modified it in libc 5.1.3 and linux 1.3.3. If
you want, you can test it under libc 5.1.3 and linux 1.3.3. Of course,
your ls has to be dynamicalled linked with libc 5.x.x.

|> With *BSD, i haven't yet reached any limit of annoying behaviour due
|> to structural overload concerning the filesystem. 
|> 
|> Anyway, my ext2 filesystems are quite old releases. Maybe they got
|> better in the meantime.
|> 

H.J.