[Info-vax] Suggestion: Adding a /SORT option to DIRECTORY and F$SEARCH ?

[Simon Clubley]

On 2022-01-26, Jan-Erik Söderholm <jan-erik.soderholm at telia.com> wrote:
> Den 2022-01-26 kl. 15:03, skrev Simon Clubley:
>> On 2022-01-26, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>>>
>>> True, but with modern HW sizes then it would be an extremely
>>> rare case.
>>>
>>> 1 thousand entries of 256 bytes is only 256 KB.
>>>
>>> 1 million entries of 256 bytes is "only" 256 MB.
>>>
>> 
>> And that's only virtual memory which is needed. You don't even need
>> that much physical memory to be present to process a gigantic directory.
>> 
>
> How do you process this with reasonable performance if you do not
> have the physical memory to store your filenames in and do the sorting?

That depends on the OS paging algorithms and the sorting algorithm in use.

> And what kind of "virtual" memory are you talking about?

Normal process virtual memory. Only a small part of the virtual address
space of an active process needs to be backed by physical memory at any
one time, although ideally most of it would be.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.