Removing a directory with a 200,000 files in quickly

From: managers account <managers_at_mannet.mcb.net>
Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 15:54:46 +0100 (BST)

Is there ANY way of removing a directory quickly when it has an enormous
number of files and sub directories in it? I am so used to RSTS and VMS
where you can zero a directory and unlink all the files in a few
seconds. Is the rm -r command the only way? and is this a consequence of
the strict Unix hierarchial tree? Yes you can list the files to a temp
file and fastrm them but that still takes significant time.
I am trying to find a fast way of moving the comp subtree in news from
one disk to another. In order to make a symbolic link on the existing
disk after copying the files from one disk to another (via vdump/vrestore
pipes if
you want) you apparently have to rm -r on the existing disk before you
can create the symbolic link to the new disk. In the meantime you have
to stop any new files being created on the old disk by throttling news
which is a bit inefficient.
Regards
Stuart McKenzie
Received on Mon May 12 1997 - 17:26:11 NZST

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