How many files can I put in a directory?

Question

Does it matter how many files I keep in a single directory? If so, how many files in a directory is too many, and what are the impacts of having too many files? (This is on

Answer 1

If the time involved in implementing a directory partitioning scheme is minimal, I am in favor of it. The first time you have to debug a problem that involves manipulating a 10000-file directory via the console you will understand.

As an example, F-Spot stores photo files as YYYY\MM\DD\filename.ext, which means the largest directory I have had to deal with while manually manipulating my ~20000-photo collection is about 800 files. This also makes the files more easily browsable from a third party application. Never assume that your software is the only thing that will be accessing your software's files.