The file number limitation is unreasonable

[windcbf]

The quota usage of my account :

177.12 MB (8.6%) / 30508 Files (99.3%)

Because I use CMS system on the host. It generates a lot of files.
Now I can only upload a few files. How does the big space make sense for me ?

Can PowWeb remove the file number limitaion ?

[tbonekkt]

Here's why the file count limit is in place: A file system provides two resources to the user: blocks (for data) and inodes (for files). Each file consumes one inode. File systems on the servers do not have an unlimited number of inodes available, so the file number limit is in place to prevent all of the inodes on the server from being used.

File data is stored in data blocks (usually made up of 1 Kbyte blocks). Theoretically, a user can exceed his or her inode quota by creating 15360 empty files (without using any blocks - an empty file is still a file). A user can also use only one inode yet exceed his or her block quota by creating one file large enough to consume all the data blocks in the user's quota.

[windcbf]

Can you advise me how to see the file number of each directory in my FTP account ?

Thanks a lot!

[tbonekkt]

See this tip: http://prettyworthless.com/tips.php?tip=size#tip

Be advised that directory listings are limited to 5000 files as the FTP server will not list more than that. The only way to access files above 5000 is to move some of the visible files out of the directory.

Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to have that many files in one directory. An excessive number of files in a given directory degrades performance and increases the time needed for the server to access a given file. Try breaking your files up into relevant subdirectories for better performance and ease of management.

[Skunkboy]

Filel counts are in place to prevent sites like yours from making the FAT so big that nothing runs right. Every file has an entry in the File Allocation Table... the more files, the bigger the FAT... a giant FAT, the longer it takes to find files.

[sfriedberg]

Skunkboy, UNIX file systems are more sophisticated than FAT, at least those in use since 1985. While Windows has FAT (three or four variations) and NTFS, Unix and Linux have dozens of different types of file systems. :-)

Both you and tbonekkt are correct, of course. The internal file system structure has built-in resource limits on the numbers of files or performance limits on the number of files in a given directory, or both. Resource limits are shared by everyone using the file system. Performance limits may also impact people other than the owner of the over-stuffed directory.

[benswift]

So... is it better not to use a CMS? the reason I ask is that I just installed phpWCMS and am building a new site with it... and I want it to be a long term solution for this site. Once I have a handle on how to best implement phpWCMS on the other sites that I have on PowWeb-

Any advice?

Also- having just written the above I checked my ftp stats:

Used: 29.72 MB (1.5%) / 3511 Files (11.4%)
Quota: 2048.00 MB / 30720 Files

[tbonekkt]

Not necessarily stevofc. Our network infrastructure has changed tremendously over the past two years. We went from storing customer files on each webserver's hard drives, to storing all customer files on a NetApp, and now to multiple NetApps. With technology advances and purchases, the ability to up the file count has been made possible.

[IanS]

this is kind of funny to me. before with the old limit we were told it couldn't be raised at all...since then it has been nearly doubled. the staff would be better off telling us they just don't want to change it than to give a big technical reason. because if it anything like the past the reasons they gave ultimately meant nothing.There may be policy reasons not to change or technical reasons. Although you're given a technical reason at a particular time, technology moves on at a very rapid pace. In the 1980's you couldn't do things for 'technical reasons', so in the 2000's you still can't do things, only the things you can't do have changed.

Who in the past -as in 1980's (apart from Sci-Fi writers) really believed in likelyhood of a network of computers around the world being interconnected via multiple pathways? Who in the days of early IBM 8086 PC's would have believed that home computers would have Gigabytes (or even Terrabytes) of hard-disk storage?

Staff are telling the truth when they say there's a technical limit, it's very reasonable for that limit to change over time. There'll still be a technical limit and it may be in place for a short time or a relatively long time. The limit may increase without us being told, just to add to the permutations.

File storage limits have increased whilst I've been signed up, and many who have been sign-up longer than I have recall the (now rediculously low) limit of 320Mb storage.

It's in Powweb's interest to increase limits when technically possible to do so, it attracts customers, which brings in the cents, which pays the wages and directors/shareholders even more!

[mdgroot]

@Benswift

So... is it better not to use a CMS? the reason I ask is that I just installed phpWCMS and am building a new site with it... and I want it to be a long term solution for this site.

This is no problem at all. I myself also use phpWCMS. The CMS itself is very small, it depends on what and ow many files (images/photo's) you'll add to it.