Date:        Thu, 16 Sep 1999 12:24:28 -0400 (EDT)
    From:        Curt Sampson <cjs@cynic.net>
    Message-ID:  <Pine.NEB.4.02.9909161222470.8514-100000@epistolic.cynic.net>

  | all to save a few blocks on a disk?

To be fair - the potential saving here isn't the irrelevant disc space,
it is the processor (and i/o) time saved scanning the directories concerned.
That can be non-trivial (I have systems where my mqueue directory has been
known to reach > a Mb .. and then each new create takes a LONG time, until
the directory finally gets small again).

But I agree, those cases are probably better handled by manual cleanups
(or even a script which scans the dir tree looking for the cases where
the dir size is much greater than the sum of the lengths of the pathnames
and performed the mass mv script to shrink them).

kre