Re: [rfc] Near-constant time directory index for Ext2

H. Peter Anvin
2001-02-21T23:15:44Z

Martin Mares wrote:
>
> Hello!
>
> > True. Note too, though, that on a filesystem (which we are, after all,
> > talking about), if you assume a large linear space you have to create a
> > file, which means you need to multiply the cost of all random-access
> > operations with O(log n).
>
> One could avoid this, but it would mean designing the whole filesystem in a
> completely different way -- merge all directories to a single gigantic
> hash table and use (directory ID,file name) as a key, but we were originally
> talking about extending ext2, so such massive changes are out of question
> and your log n access argument is right.
>

It would still be tricky since you have to have actual files in the
filesystem as well.

-hpa

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