Performance Degradation when Accessing Large Subdirectories (39535)


The information in this article applies to:
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 2.11
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.1
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.2
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.21
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3a
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 4.0
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 4.01
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0a
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.0
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.21
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.22
This article was previously published under Q39535

SUMMARY

You may notice a performance slowdown for MS-DOS when creating many files in a subdirectory. MS-DOS is much slower at accessing a subdirectory that contains many files or deleted files than at accessing a new subdirectory (that is, a subdirectory containing no deleted files).

This slowdown occurs because MS-DOS directories do not get smaller when you delete a file. MS-DOS inserts a "no file here" mark for each deleted file in a directory. There are two different "No file here" marks in the first bytes of directories: 
   Value   Description
   -----------------------------------------------------------------
   E5H     No file at this location
   05H     No file at this location
   00H     No file at this location and no files after this location
Whenever you create a file, MS-DOS searches to the end of the directory to see if a file with that name already exists. Even if files have been deleted from the directory, MS-DOS must still check for the "No file here" entry for each deleted file.

MORE INFORMATION

The following is an example that demonstrates the reason for the performance slowdown:

    • Create a directory DIR. Initially, this new directory looks like the following: 
          .
      ..
      00H

    • Create the file FILE1. MS-DOS has to look at two entries to determine that there is no file by that name. The directory now looks like the following: 
          .
      ..
      FILE1
      00H

    • Create the file FILE2. MS-DOS now has to look at three entries to determine that there is no file by that name. The directory now looks like the following: 
          .
      ..
      FILE1
      FILE2
      00H

    • Create the file FILE3. MS-DOS now has to look at four entries to determine that there is no file by that name. The directory now looks like the following: 
          .
      ..
      FILE1
      FILE2
      FILE3
      00H

    • Delete FILE*. The directory now looks like the following: 
          .
      ..
      E5
      E5
      E5
      00H

    • Create the file FILE1. MS-DOS still has to look at four entries to determine that there is no file by that name. (Note that MS-DOS must look at the empty entries thus performance does not improve after the deletion.) The directory now looks like the following: 
          .
      ..
      FILE1
      E5H
      E5H
      00H

    • Create the file FILE2. Again, MS-DOS has to look at four entries to determine that there is no file by that name. The directory now looks like the following: 
          .
      ..
      FILE1
      FILE2
      E5H
      00H

    • Create the file FILE3. MS-DOS has to look at four entries to determine that there is no file by that name. The directory now looks like the following: 
          .
      ..
      FILE1
      FILE2
      FILE3
      00H
The performance decreases more when deleted entries exist in a subdirectory; performance can be even slower, depending on the size and type of the disk and the size of the MS-DOS buffer cache (the BUFFERS command in the file CONFIG.SYS). Disk access is very expensive in terms of performance, and depending on the interaction with the MS-DOS buffer cache LRU (Least Recently Used) management, you may have to do more disk accesses.

There are third-party utilities that edit directories and eliminate unused directory entries, improving the performance of MS-DOS.
Modification Type: Major Last Reviewed: 5/10/2003
Keywords: KB39535
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