Tencent Database Technology

Dec 27, 2017 · Fundamentals

Why ls Slows Down on Directories with Millions of Files and How to Speed It Up Using getdents

The article explains that the ls command becomes slow on directories containing millions of files because it repeatedly calls the getdents system call through readdir, and demonstrates how directly using getdents with a larger buffer can reduce the listing time from several seconds to under one second.