[opensuse] ext3 and ext4 file system limitations question
Hi all, Sorry if the question is dumb but I did a little looking around and couldn't find anything relevant. So the question is, is there are limit on the number of files and/or directories one could store in an ext3 and ext4 file system? If the answer is "yes, there is" - what is that limit? Thanks. Boris. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:01:09 -0400, Boris Epstein wrote:
Hi all,
Sorry if the question is dumb but I did a little looking around and couldn't find anything relevant. So the question is, is there are limit on the number of files and/or directories one could store in an ext3 and ext4 file system? If the answer is "yes, there is" - what is that limit?
Wikipedia's entries for ext3 and ext4 probably answer your questions - at least to my quick review, they seem to. Jim -- Jim Henderson Please keep on-topic replies on the list so everyone benefits -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 4:01 PM, Boris Epstein <borepstein@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
Sorry if the question is dumb but I did a little looking around and couldn't find anything relevant. So the question is, is there are limit on the number of files and/or directories one could store in an ext3 and ext4 file system? If the answer is "yes, there is" - what is that limit?
Thanks.
Boris.
Boris, I don't know if there is a true limit, but many filesystem types fall down performance wise well before they hit true limits. For instance, with NTFS I've seen 3 1/2 million files in one directory, so in theory it works. But at about 10,000 files, the performance starts to drop. At 3 1/2 million files it took forever to work with the files in that directory. The moral is you need to test for performance even if the limit is above your needs. Greg -- Greg Freemyer Head of EDD Tape Extraction and Processing team Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer Preservation and Forensic processing of Exchange Repositories White Paper - <http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/tng_whitepaper_fpe.html> The Norcross Group The Intersection of Evidence & Technology http://www.norcrossgroup.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Wednesday, 2010-03-17 at 16:45 -0500, Greg Freemyer wrote:
I don't know if there is a true limit, but many filesystem types fall down performance wise well before they hit true limits.
For instance, with NTFS I've seen 3 1/2 million files in one directory, so in theory it works.
But at about 10,000 files, the performance starts to drop. At 3 1/2 million files it took forever to work with the files in that directory.
Reiserfs in that situation runs fine :-p - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkuhcVoACgkQtTMYHG2NR9WrrACfWRpJguo17wUFZzpD9atljSjc fB4An17d97puLpdTxSkxp0uHf+AW2eCX =gLLK -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wednesday, 2010-03-17 at 16:45 -0500, Greg Freemyer wrote:
I don't know if there is a true limit, but many filesystem types fall down performance wise well before they hit true limits. For instance, with NTFS I've seen 3 1/2 million files in one directory, so in theory it works. But at about 10,000 files, the performance starts to drop. At 3 1/2 million files it took forever to work with the files in that directory. Reiserfs in that situation runs fine :-p
As does current ext3 and ext4. Although in any case [using any filesystem] NSS can still kill your performance depending on how you are stating the directory. -- Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam@whitemice.org> LPIC-1, Novell CLA <http://www.whitemiceconsulting.com> OpenGroupware, Cyrus IMAPd, Postfix, OpenLDAP, Samba -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
I don't know if there is a true limit, but many filesystem types fall down performance wise well before they hit true limits. For instance, with NTFS I've seen 3 1/2 million files in one directory, so in theory it works.
It is important to note that there is no such thing as "NTFS" or "ext3". There are many versions of these filesystems, and they can be tuned/mounted with various options, all of which may have a very measurable performance impact. NTFS of NT4 isn't the NTFS of Server 2003 which isn't the NTFS of Server 2008. The same is true of ext3 across kernel versions (although a ext3 created under and older kernel may retain its older defaults under a newer kernel unless specifically upgraded; directory indexing being a good example of such behavior). -- Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam@whitemice.org> LPIC-1, Novell CLA <http://www.whitemiceconsulting.com> OpenGroupware, Cyrus IMAPd, Postfix, OpenLDAP, Samba -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (5)
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Adam Tauno Williams -
Boris Epstein -
Carlos E. R. -
Greg Freemyer -
Jim Henderson