[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. 20:28, skrev Arne Vajhøj:
>> On 1/26/2022 1:48 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>
>>> 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.
>> 
>> I don't think DIR causing hard PF's would provide a good UX.
>
> That is why I asked what virmem has to do with anything here.
>

I was addressing your comment about needing a new error message
for very large directories when trying to sort them.

That's not needed because what determines whether the sort runs to
completion is the amount of virtual memory available to a process,
not the amount of physical memory, and when you are talking about that,
then it's no different from the issues involved in running any other
program that might consume a lot of memory.

In practice, the directory would have to be a stupid large size for
this to be in any way a constraint.

>> 
>> But luckily I don't think it would be necessary.
>> 
>
> No, probably not. DIR's are usually not that large on VMS.
>

Agreed. I've sorted large directories on Linux and _never_ had a problem.

Simon.

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