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Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 11:01:49 -0500
From: Kent Borg <kentborg@borg.org>
To: Adam Voigt <adam@cryptocomm.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: File Limit in Kernel?
Message-ID: <20021112110149.A9492@borg.org>
References: <1037115535.1439.5.camel@beowulf.cryptocomm.com>
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In-Reply-To: <1037115535.1439.5.camel@beowulf.cryptocomm.com>; from adam@cryptocomm.com on Tue, Nov 12, 2002 at 10:38:55AM -0500
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On Tue, Nov 12, 2002 at 10:38:55AM -0500, Adam Voigt wrote:
> I have a directory with 39,000 files in it, and I'm trying to use the cp
> command to copy them into another directory, 
> [...]
> "argument list too long"

No, it is not a kernel limit, it is a limit to your shell (bash, for
example).  Look at xargs to get around it.

A related limit is that the popular ext2 and 3 file systems get
inefficient when directories have so many files.  The work-around for
that is to have your files either hashed or organized across a
collection of directories.


-kb
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