Background
The performance of a file system is dependent on many things; one of the crucial factors is just how that filesystem lays out files on the disk. In general, it is best to keep related items together. The Linux ext2 and ext3 filesystems, for instance, have tried to spread directories on the cylinders of the disk. Imagine setting up a system with users' home directories in /home: if all the first-level directories within /home (i.e. the home directories for numerous users) are placed next to each other, there may be no space left for the contents of those directories. User files thus end up being placed far from the directories that contain them, and performance suffers.
Spreading directories on the disc allows files in the same directory to remain more or less contiguous as their number and/or size grows, but there are some situations where this causes excessive spreading of the data on the disc's surface.
Read more about this topic: Orlov Block Allocator
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)