Coda File System

Re: Files Bigger Than Cache Size

From: Jan Harkes <jaharkes_at_cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:46:01 -0500
On Thu, Jan 31, 2008 at 11:40:47AM +0000, coda_at_bobich.net wrote:
> On Thu, 31 Jan 2008, u+codalist-p4pg_at_chalmers.se wrote:
>>> Right, OK. The problem is that I'm hoping to use Coda for home directories
>>> which contain anything from thousands of small files (Maildirs) to dozens
>>
>> A word of caution, maildirs can by easily filled by a mail storm
>> or a busy mailing list, and break (Coda dirs are limited to 256K, see Wiki)
>
> I just looked at that and initially thought that 256K files wouldn't be a 
> problem. Then I re-read it and the Wiki page on limitations, and the  
> implication is that this means between 2048 and 4096 files. This seems  
> rather low. Is there a work-around?

Not really, besides frequently archiving high-traffic mailboxes. I still
keep linux-kernel in a local disk folder, all others live in Coda. Some
rotate every month, others about once every three months. I archive each
months worth of email from a maildir folder into a compressed mailbox
file. So I get the concurrent lockless access properties for recent
email, but compact storage for older mails where it is not as likely to
get write-write conflicts.

A secondary benefit is that this way I can keep all email hoarded in my
client cache and as such can access it when disconnected. Of course the
sending replies part of email doesn't work during disconnection.

Jan
Received on 2008-01-31 21:47:26