Practical Limit to Files in a Directory?

How many is too many?

[dcheney]

Howdy,
I have one particular directory on my site that has a _lot_ of files (6k currently, will expand to 10k by end of year). Are there any problems with having so many files in a single directory?

[txbakers]

not that i'm aware of.

[Nick_W]

Only on disk space, what are they?

Nick

[brotherhood of LAN]

I guess the size of the folder name will come into play as will the name of it in relation to the topics of the pages.

[keyplyr]

While I see no specific problems caused by size, I can see several advantages to breaking up large directories into smaller ones.

To group .gif, .jpg (or.jpeg) and other file types for easier location/specific use.

Affiliate or external path graphic directories as opposed to my.product type use.

Smaller directories make for faster FTP when moving servers or just updating DB.

A more succinct directory tree makes for better organization and easier site management.

[dcheney]

All the images, scripts, etc. are already separated out. Also this big directory is one of 4. The others are substantially smaller. The main directory has only about 10 files.

expected by end of year:
Dir1: 10k files, 40meg
Dir2: 3k files, 16meg
Dir3: 3.5k files, 30meg
Dir4: 2.5k files, 24meg
Total: 19k files, 110meg
(i.e. a big site ;-)

[rewboss]

Theoretically, I can't see a problem. The only thing is that you may simply lose track of what files you've got there. If you've organized them well, it shouldn't be a problem. Just be careful not to accidentally upload a new file with the same name as an existing file -- the old file will be deleted.