A/UX: UFS Subdirectory Limit (9/94)


I came across an interesting limitation problem of A/UX 2.0: You can create only 1000 subdirectories within a directory. After that, mkdir won't make any more subdirectories. Instead, you get the message:

mkdir: another: Too many links

We need to create more than 1000 subdirectories inside one directory because the software we are porting to A/UX creates a directory for each department at the University, and there are more than 1000 departments.

We have verified that there is a limitation on the number of subdirectories created within a directory under A/UX 2.0 UFS file system. The maximum is 1000. This is defined in the /usr/include/sys/param.h file with a line:

#define MAXLINK 1000 /* max links */

The maximum number of subdirectories under A/UX 3.0 is 32,767.

Article Change History:
2 Sept 1994 - Added information about A/UX 3.0.
26 Aug 1994 - Reviewed and updated.

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Published Date: Feb 18, 2012