Re: Question: Maximum number of directories?

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@mesanetworks.net>]

On Mon, Dec 05, 2005 at 08:36:32AM +1000, Gerorge Reece-Howe wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I wanted to make an application that would create many thousands of databases in MySQL.
> 
> I was wondering if there was a limit to the number of directories a single directory could hold? I assume the number of directories would be the limit (if any) to the number of databases MySQL could handle.
> 
> Would there be any adverse effects of doing this (with regard to either the system or the database)?
> 
> Is this the right place to be asking this kind of question?
> 

One of the earliest design decisions in UNIX was the way a file
hierarchy was to be implemented.  In UNIX, a directory is "just"
another file. But, it is marked for special handling by the OS.  As
such, the limit on the number of entries in a directory is derived
from the maximum size of a file. The maximum size of a file is ~2GB on
32bit systems and much larger on 64bit systems.

I think that this limit will not ever be a practical limitation.
Other problems will become important long before this limit is
reached.

HTH
-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@mesanetworks.net