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I think the question should be why don't we have filesystems handle this implicitly using a tree structure behind the scenes. Are we so many layers above our ha
by aargh_aargh 4y ago
I think the question should be why don't we have filesystems handle this implicitly using a tree structure behind the scenes. Are we so many layers above our hardware that it simply doesn't occur to us as the right solution?
- londons_explore 4y agoThe unix filesystem API doesn't let you "give me a list of all files in this directory matching this pattern". Nor does it let you start iterating through a directory with getdents(), then pause, then come back to iterate the rest of the files later. You have to receive every file name in the order the OS wants to give them to you. That prevents applications really being able to make use of clever storage mechanisms - you can never find the most recent 3 files in a big directory with anything cheaper than a linear scan.
- dahauns 4y agoWell, NTFS works with B-Trees...so nope, it's not a silver bullet either, the bottleneck will just be somewhere else in the storage stack :) (But we have impressively speedy tools like Wiztree or Everything thanks to it.)
- arantius 4y agoI've used WinDirStat but not Wiztree before -- Wiztree is so much faster!