[darcs-users] breaking hashed files into multiple directories

[Dan Pascu]

On Tuesday 02 September 2008, Petr Rockai wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Dan Pascu <dan at ag-projects.com> writes:
> > If you want to go this path, why not use a database to store the
> > data? Berkeley DB or SQLite should do just fine and they are most
> > likely much faster in accessing the data that any archive, while
> > giving you the same single file storage advantage (well maybe 3:
> > pristine, patches and inventories). It won't give you the compression
> > advantage (though you could store compressed data in them if that is
> > really desired), but that is less of an issue I believe, as disk
> > space is cheap and some stuff is already compressed (patches). Such a
> > solution will definitely avoid the limited number of files per
> > directory issue and can even offer the benefits of a hashed
> > repository (no direct access to pristine to accidentally modify
> > files), but without the need to hash the files, since they can be
> > stored verbatim in the database. This would also make it slightly
> > faster as the need to hash the files will dissapear.
>
> it should also be noted, that it would make http repository access next
> to impossible and other remote access pretty tricky. Also, hashing the
> files gives us much better consistency and robustness guarantees than
> any of the mentioned "database" engines ever pretended.

Hmmm, you're right. I have forgotten about all these details. Bad idea in 
the end, please disregard.

-- 
Dan