[Gambas-user] using a "file system database"

[Kevin Fishburne]

I'm in the early phases of creating a "database" that uses the file 
system for data organization rather than a traditional software database 
such as MySQL, etc. I'm hoping that this could be faster since my 
requirements are very specific and (I think) don't need a general 
purpose database.

I will have 4,194,304 "cells", each of which has about three datafiles 
that will need to be opened, read from, written to and closed regularly. 
I could consolidate the three files into one, reducing the number of 
files, but this would increase the amount of time taken to parse the 
files and slow the program significantly.

I'm considering dividing them into hierarchies of directories to avoid 
having four to 16 million data files in the same directory. Initial 
tests hit file system (or file space, not sure yet) limits.

Does anyone have any insights into the ext3/4 filesystem, possible 
alternate file systems, and databases to know what the best solution 
would be for this type of problem? Any insights into the most efficient 
way to create hierarchies of directories and files would be appreciated 
as well.

-- 
Kevin Fishburne
Eight Virtues
www: http://sales.eightvirtues.com
e-mail: sales at ...1887...
phone: (770) 853-6271