Max files in unix folder from PIL process

David Pratt fairwinds at eastlink.ca
Mon Mar 28 17:25:38 PST 2005


Hi.  I am creating a python application that uses PIL to generate 
thumbnails and sized images. It is beginning to look the volume of 
images will be large. This has got me to thinking.  Is there a number 
that Unix can handle in a single directory. I am using FreeBSD4.x at 
the moment. I am thinking the number could be as high 500,000 images in 
a single directory but more likely in the range of 6,000 to 30,000 for 
most. I did not want to store these in Postgres.  I will most likely to 
break these into directories by size ie. thumbnail, small, medium, 
large, etc. .  That will at least take it down by a factor of the 
number of sizes used but still the possibility of a very large number 
(maximum to perhaps 100,000 or more) There is really no other way that 
I can think of to categorize these at  the moment.   Should this pose a 
problem on the filesystem?  How will it affect the use of Unix tools?  
Will there be access problems that affect speed? This is unchartered 
territory for me so hope someone who has been there, done that can 
provide some of what they learned from experience.  Many thanks.

Regards,
David



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