john smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>I am concerned with running up against file/inode limits with maildirs.
>However, I have no real knowledge of the underlying file system to base
>this fear on. Can anyone recommend somewhere where I can learn more
>about this?
Hmm, I can't think of a good reference off-hand. Your OS documentation
should have various pieces of the puzzle. A good UNIX system
administration book should cover this, too, but beware that this is OF
and filesystem specific.
>Some of my questions: Does the size of the drive affect the
>maximum number of files? What are the average practical limits?
There are (at least) four factors that potentially limit the number of
files on a filesystem:
1) Free space. If the filesystem is full, you can't create more
files--even if you have free inodes.
2) The size of the filesystem. All other things equal, bigger
filesystems can have more files.
3) The type of filesystem. Traditional UNIX filesystems, like
those based on the Berkeley Fast File System (FFS), allocate a
chunk of space at initialization for inodes, and when that
space is used up, you can't create more files, even if the
filesystem has gigabytes of data space free. SGI XFS doesn't
preallocate inode space, so as long as the filesystem isn't
full, you can create more files.
4) How much space was preallocated for inodes. The newfs/mkfs
commands that create filesystems for filesystem types that
preallocate inode space allow you to specify the size of the
average file. Smaller files require more inodes.
Your "df" command should have option to show you inode usage.
-Dave
