Things that make you go "Hmmm"

Aaron Tiensivu (tiensivu@pilot.msu.edu)
Wed, 30 Oct 1996 11:35:14 -0500 (EST)

I was just thinking about something with VFAT and how ppl have mentioned how
doing a simple 'ls' is slow. I was browsing the 'fs/dcache.c' code and wondered
if this might be why. [I realize FAT has its own cache, but I think it still
uses dcache (?). I haven't looked at it closely enough to know. (Since this
just popped in my head anyway)]

Code snippet from dcache.c:

/*
* Don't bother caching long names.. They just take up space in the cache, and
* for a name cache you just want to cache the "normal" names anyway which tend
* to be short.
*/
#define DCACHE_NAME_LEN 15
#define DCACHE_SIZE 128

For the sake of experimentation, I'm going to increase the NAME_LEN on my
machine and see if it makes a difference.

You know, those numbers above might be a handy /proc tunable entry.
I might just do that too. :)