From: Linus Torvalds Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 07:40:55 GMT Subject: Re: Yet another base64 patch Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <425E0D62.9000401@zytor.com> On Wed, 13 Apr 2005, H. Peter Anvin wrote: > > Actually, the subdirectory hack has the same effect, so you lose > regardless. Doesn't mean that you can't construct cases where the > subdirectory hack doesn't win, but I maintain that those are likely to > be artificial. I'll tell you why a flat object directory format simply isn't an option. Hint: maximum directory size. It's limited by n_link, and it's almost universally a 16-bit number on Linux (and generally artifically limited to 32000 entries). In other words, if you ever expect to have more than 32000 objects, a flat space simply isn't possible. Linus