libraries

[Larry Campbell]

Why not keep directories sorted?  In SysV filesystems this is easy and
relatively inexpensive, since you can assume a fixed 16 bytes per name.
I am also assuming that lookups outnumber creations to a huge degree,
which I'm sure is the case.

Then namei becomes a binary search.

It also means ls doesn't need to sort things any more.
-- 
Larry Campbell                          The Boston Software Works, Inc.
campbell at bsw.com                        120 Fulton Street
wjh12!redsox!campbell                   Boston, MA 02146