Question

MAX # of level of directory

Asked by: potatotsang

What's the maximum number of level of directory i can have starting from the / ?

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Asked On
2003-04-07 at 23:40:17ID20577842
Tags

directory

,

max

,

maximum

Topic

Linux Programming

Participating Experts
5
Points
200
Comments
11

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Answers

 

by: prady_21Posted on 2003-04-08 at 05:00:39ID: 8290856

"i think" as many as u want

 

by: potatotsangPosted on 2003-04-08 at 09:12:20ID: 8292859

any ref which can support ur ans?

 

by: GaryFxPosted on 2003-04-08 at 10:09:27ID: 8293215

Directories on UNIX are just a special type of file.  The only knowledge a directory has of its place in the tree is the pointer to the parent directory (..).  That's why, for example, moving directories in UNIX is very fast - you just need to change a few pointers.  For this reason, I think the previous answer is correct - there's no direct limit across all UNIX platforms.

There are, however, practical limits:

UNIX (POSIX) has a system-dependent configuration item called PATH_MAX which limits the total length of a file path.  You can determine this limit with the pathconf function.  This serves as an effective upper bound on the directory depth, with the maximum (half of PATH_MAX) achieved by naming the directories with a single character.  

Even with this limit, I'm not sure there aren't tricks to work around it (e.g. a symlink from the top level deep into the tree).

There other resource limits, such as the limit on inodes and disk blocks.  Each directory typically consumes a disk block and an inode.  So these are independent limits, still system-dependent.

Gary

 

by: potatotsangPosted on 2003-04-08 at 10:20:19ID: 8293299

any ref which can support ur ans?

 

by: potatotsangPosted on 2003-04-08 at 10:21:53ID: 8293308

sorry , misclick on refresh. ignore my last comment pls.

 

by: GaryFxPosted on 2003-04-08 at 11:27:59ID: 8293774

Actually, I don't have access to the POSIX spec (which would be the best place to go for a firm reference), and I don't know of any other references off the top of my head.  

Gary

 

by: ahoffmannPosted on 2003-04-10 at 04:40:13ID: 8306098

AFAIK there is no general limit of directory levels.
Just some applications have these.

In Linux only the pathlength is limited (4096, usually, see limits.h), but not the depth.
Application which limit the depth are ln (128, not shure) and NFS Version 2 (128).
Just check the sources, cause these constants may differ in sevaral versions.

 

by: naschPosted on 2003-04-15 at 14:32:35ID: 8336902

<font size="4"> no limit, ill show the results of pwd if the font change works</font>

 

by: naschPosted on 2003-04-15 at 14:33:55ID: 8336910

this just brought a thought to me, buffer overflows, imagine if a user on a place such as geocities made a bunch of folders, if the program didn't force a limit, and then make over the path length limit and then put "; rm-rf" at the end of it, anyway...
the folder restrictions are based on the filesystem(ext3fs)
im really bored so im checking it out by doing mkdir /a/a/a/a/a/a/a etc. ill give u the result if it ever stops letting me, if it stops ill try making a file in the directory!!!
 okay i think the directory limit is non-existant: the results of pwd...

VERY LONG, requires | more to stay on one page the font didnt work so its not included
AND i created a file called test.test and the results of cat test.test is(very slow) the exact contents of the file
everything goes a little slower cd'ing ls'ing cat'ing etc.

 

by: jmcgPosted on 2004-02-10 at 21:40:48ID: 10329763

No comment has been added lately, so it's time to clean up this TA.
I will leave the following recommendation for this question in the Cleanup topic area:

Accept: GaryFx {http:#8293215}

Please leave any comments here within the next four days.
PLEASE DO NOT ACCEPT THIS COMMENT AS AN ANSWER!

jmcg
EE Cleanup Volunteer

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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