Bob Proulx <b...@proulx.com> writes: > Petter Adsen wrote: >> Can someone please enlighten me as to why the entry for this directory >> is so large, even though it is empty? Since it's apparently obvious to >> everyone else, I would very much like to know :) > > <snipped> > > If a directory became full it was easy to extend it > by writing the array longer. But if an early entry in the array was > deleted the system would zero it out rather than move each and every > entry in the file system down a slot. (I always wondered why they > didn't simply take the *last* entry and move it down to the deleted > entry and simply keep the array always compacted. I wonder. But they > didn't do it that way.) >
Moving entries around breaks ongoing readdir operations. If a readdir has gone past the file being removed, and you moved the last entry there, the entry being moved would be missed, despite *it* not being the entry added or removed. > <snipped> -- regards, kushal -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/87h9shlvve....@carbon.locationd.net.
