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

Felix von Leitner
2001-02-23T00:58:52Z

Thus spake Alan Cox (alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk):
> > > There will be a lot fewer metadata index
> > > blocks in your directory file, for one thing.
> > Oh yes, another thing: a B-tree directory structure does not need
> > metadata index blocks.
> Before people get excited about complex tree directory indexes, remember to
> solve the other 95% before implementation - recovering from lost blocks,
> corruption and the like

And don't forget the trouble with NFS handles after the tree was rebalanced.

Trees are nice only theoretically. In practice, the benefits are
outweighed by the nastiness in form of fsck and NFS and bigger code
(normally: more complex -> less reliable).

Felix