From: Tim Hunter <TimHunter@...>
Date: 2008-11-29T03:46:01+09:00
Subject: Re: Maximum number of files on a disk ?

Axel Etzold wrote:
> -------- Original-Nachricht --------
>> Datum: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:10:34 +0900
>> Von: "Wayne Vucenic" <nightphotos@gmail.com>
>> An: ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org
>> Betreff: Re: Maximum number of files on a disk ?
> 
>> On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 2:16 PM, Axel Etzold <AEtzold@gmx.de> wrote:
>>
>>> the maximum number of files that can be created on a hard disk...
>>> for ... NTFS and fat32 ...
>> For NTFS, the maximum number of files that can be created is 2**32 - 1.
>>
>> I'd expect that the number for fat32 is similarly large.
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>>
>> Wayne
>>
>> ---
>> Wayne Vucenic
>> No Bugs Software
>> Agile Ruby (but preferably not Rails) Contract Programming in Silicon
>> Valley since 2001
> 
> Dear Wayne,
> 
> thank you for responding.
> I am writing to an NTFS disk, where I am splitting up a large XML file into smaller
> bits, which are saved as individual files ( and closed immediately after writing to them).
> The process runs smoothly until I get the following last correct output 
> 
> 49'000'000   #  <-  number of lines traversed in the XML file so far (print every 500'000)
> <current file title>
> 1483042     #  <- smaller files written to disk so far
> 
> and this error:
> 
> lbwiki2.rb:114:in `initialize': Operation not supported - /media/Philips External Hard Disk/en_wiki/Warnock's\ Dilemma (Errno::EOPNOTSUPP)
> 	from lbwiki2.rb:114:in `new'
> 	from lbwiki2.rb:114
> 	from lbwiki2.rb:85:in `each'
> 	from lbwiki2.rb:85
> 
> In this line 114, there's a File.new for the next small file to be created. The spaces in the file name are no problem.
> I am using Ubuntu 8.10 (32 bit)  + ruby-1.8.7-p72. 
> 
> I cannot create any files on the disk anymore, neither with Ruby nor on the command line. This works
> again if I delete some file/folder.
> 
> So there must be some maximum amount of files that this NTFS disk can handle, which is way below 2**32-1 ...
> What can I do here ?
> 

I don't know anything about NTFS. I'm just thinking out loud. I wonder 
if you've hit some kind of limit on the number of files that can be in 
the same directory? Is there some way to organize the files into 
multiple directories?

-- 
RMagick: http://rmagick.rubyforge.org/