Subject: RE: Cygwinb19.dll
From: [email-masked] (Leo Mauro)

2 Jul 1998 09:09:00 -0700
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On Wednesday, July 01, 1998 04:13 AM, Robert Cross wrote:

> Side point, I remember reading somewhere that Win'95 has quite a 
> low limit on the number of files permitted in a directory.

Not completely true. The root directories of FAT partitions have a
fixed size (established at format time), and cannot grow.  All other
directories can grow dynamically, and therefore have no other limit
than the one imposed by available free space.  I do not remember
out of the top of my head how FORMAT decides what the root
directory's size should be, but I do remember that a directory can
store 16 entries per 512-byte sector.

Anyway, the root directory's capacity is fairly generous.  I just
did a spot check of 5 FAT partitions in 3 different drives, and the
diagnostic tool reported capacities ranging from 512 to 800
entries in the various root directories.  But remember that long
file names take up two or more entries: one or more to store the
long file name (depending on how long it is), and another for the
abbreviated 8.3 DOS name.

The only case I remember of the root directory size limit actually
revealing itself was when a partition repair tool created hundreds
of files and directories in the root directory as it repaired a badly
damaged file system.  That tool eventually couldn't create any
more entries and stopped.  The partition was so badly damaged
anyway that I ended up reformatting it...

Leo Mauro
Principal Scientist
TeleSys Technologies, Inc.
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