In article <9508082019.AA19749@tomcat.vas.viewlogic.com>, greywolf@tomcat.VAS.viewlogic.com (James Graham (Captech)) writes:
> #: A quick check of a machine running NetBSD-1.0/i386 shows that there
> #: are 26927 symlinks.  Speed is definitely wanted for symlinks :-).

> Okay, but what would the funny dirent business buy us?

I have no idea.  My intention was just to point out that not all
system has `only a few symlinks'.  The number above provides a data
point for what someone out there (here?) is doing with symlinks, and I
thought that anyone making modifications to NetBSD should at least
_know_ this.  And no, I don't think any added/removed/modified
features should be based on this number alone. But still, the number
is there, and I would prefer not to see the system `evolve' into
something that can no longer handle it.  That is, if someone want to
mess around with the dirent structures, they ought to think about the
consequences not only for a directory with perhaps 10-20 symlinks in
it, but also consider what would happen if the directory contains
1200-1300 symlinks.  (/store/bin on one of the machines on campus
contains 1253 symlinks with average `data' length (the file being
pointed to) of 52 characters.)  I haven't messed with the dirents so I
can't say what will happen, other than that the directory itself may
start to get awfully big.  Good?  Bad?  I don't know, but I hope
the performance of any proposed change will be measured, and
the results evaluated properly.

					-jarle
-- 
`People who think MSDOS & Windows are the slickest thing since sliced butter
 should be forced to wear a sign stating "This mind intentionally left blank"'
					-- ronn@btsoft.cmhnet.org