Question Files On A Server

[Yahweh]

I have a website that stores cached copies of webpages on my server, so that I can serve the cached copies of the pages without having to process server-side code again. Normally, I just keep the copies in a folder called /cache like this

/cache    0000001.html    0000002.html    0000003.html...

However, I was wondering if it makes a difference if I stored the files in subfolders, where each subfolder contains 100 caches:

/cache    /000-100        0000001.html        0000002.html        0000003.html        ...    /101-200        0000101.html        0000102.html        0000103.html        ...    /301-400        0000301.html        0000302.html        0000303.html        ...    ...

I figure, if I had a 1000 (or a million) caches, I could serve them up faster by putting them in folders of about 100 each.The logic behind this idea works like this: if I had 1000 caches in a single folder, then the server has to search through 1000 filenames (at least 1000 operations). If I had them in groups of 100, the server has to pick 1 of the 10 folders (at least 10 operations) then search through 100 filenames (100 more operations). I cut the server load by almost 90%, which is noticeable for extremely popular websites.Is my reasoning correct, or do I completely misunderstand the way servers operate?

[boen_robot]

I think you've got the speeding correctly, but what about the cache itself? I can't figure out how is the server going to know when to use the server side code and when not, and isn't this kind of check slow by itself?If there is an explainable and proven answer to this (in other words: if my question is stupid), please tell me at least in PM .

[Yahweh]

I think you've got the speeding correctly, but what about the cache itself? I can't figure out how is the server going to know when to use the server side code and when not, and isn't this kind of check slow by itself?If there is an explainable and proven answer to this (in other words: if my question is stupid), please tell me at least in PM .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oops, sorry I didn't get to this sooner :)The check for cacheing isn't that slow, as long as you do it right. I write everything in ASP, which has a FileScriptingObject that lets you check when a file was created. I generally use this code:

Option ExplicitDim CacheTimeCacheTime = 3         'hoursPrivate Sub showPage(ByRef strCache)	dim objFSO, objFile, DoCache	Dim writeNewCache	writeNewCache = True		set objFSO = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")	if objFSO.FileExists(Server.MapPath(strCache)) then  if DateDiff("h", objFSO.GetFile(Server.MapPath(strCache)).DateLastModified, Now()) < CacheTime then 	 writeNewCache = False  end if	end if		DoCache = cbool(lcase(request("mode")) = lcase("recalc"))		if writeNewCache = True or DoCache = True then  server.transfer("buildfile.asp") 'I build the file, then write it to disk	end if		'set objFSO = nothing		Server.Transfer(strCache)End SubCall ShowPage("somepage.html")

Building the file and writing it to disk takes about as long as executing it on every page load, but with the extra 2 or 3 milliseconds of time it takes to build and write the file is acceptable (it has the same affect as setting Response.Buffer = True), because you only have to build it just once per whatever time interval you set, as opposed to building it on each page load.