[SLL] limit on number of files in a directory and hashed dir vs. flat dir file access time

[Ana]

On Wed, Oct 31, 2007 at 05:50:15PM -0700, Adam Monsen wrote:
...
> 
> Follow up question: is it more efficient (as far as reads are concerned) to
> "hash" files into subdirectories rather than just throw them all in a single
> directory? For instance, say I have 1 million 100 kilobyte JPEG images named
> as follows:
> 000000.jpg
> 000001.jpg
> 000002.jpg
> ...
> 999999.jpg
> 
> Would it speed up read time for a particular image if images were placed in
> directories like:
> 
> 0/0/0/0/0/1/000001.jpg and
> 0/2/3/6/1/2/023612.jpg
> 
> and so on?

Here's an interesting thread on the topic.

http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Fedora/2005-07/3279.html

- Ana