I have a (stock) 2.4.20 build (*not* -ac), and I'm trying to work with large ext3 directories. By large, I mean 160,000 files per directory. (Yes, I know it would be better in nested directories but such is life).
I feel htree would benefit me. Close reading of the 2.4 changelog suggests that htree isn't in there - only a patch to prevent non-htree builds reporting corruption after being written to by an htree build. Did I read this right?
If I am right, where is the best place to get a consolidated ext3 patch which is suitable for a production environment? If indeed such a thing exists.
And once I have htree in the kernel, does it 'automatically' produce the benefits on existing directories, or do I need to go through some on-disk process to get the directory held 'in htree form'? I believe I just need to tune2fs and switch dir_index on. But to get the performance increase, do I need to make it go and index all those large directories (somehow?). Or does it do that automatically?
And if it all goes wrong, can my filesystem still be read by ext2, or ext3 without the directory index patch? I /think/ the answer is yes, provided it has the back-compatibility patch in? (and might be 'yes' on other occasions too).
Alex Bligh
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