Max number of files in a folder.

[Darren Lewis]

Realistically, what's the max number of files one should store in a folder, before splitting into subfolders.

I want to store images in a folder (rather than in the MySQL database).

Thanks.

[beley]

Do you want to know the computer's limits or just what good practice would be? Theoretically, you can fit as many files into a folder as you have room left on your disk... but that may not be the best thing to do.

I would say if you are going to break them into several sub-categories and sub-sub-categories I would pick a low number such as 100-200 pictures... but there's no limitation that I know about on the hardware/software side.

[-TheDarkEye-]

it really depends on the file system you are using, how you wish to use the files, and how fast your server and its disks are.

assuming you arent still running on something from the pentium era, i would say ~10,000 files is an acceptable range before you need to start thinking about doing some organization. of course, if you know you are going to need to do this eventually, you would be much better off setting everything up now.