Imported From: http://groups.google.com/group/in-portal-dev/browse_thread/thread/d4ca2b893d2d8c4f#
Sometimes they were so much, that our team was forced to find some
solutions, because when too many files are stored in single folder OS
begins to process this folder too slowly. Usually solution was - putting
each file into the folder named by the first letter of this files name.
I find that quite simple and effective.
Recently our team made something new in project TBA. There it works in
such way: all files of all units are stored under a single directory -
user_files/filedump. There are appr. 400 folders at each level and
customizable number of levels (right now it's 3). Each time file gets
stored or recalled (etc. shown on front-end), destination path gets
calculated by finding md5 hash of string "<path>/<file>". Path is what
we set for "upload_dir" in configs, so actually it is virtual. It is
only needed to have different results for files with same names, but in
different units. Files are only stored on the last level. So if number
of levels is 3, it would be something like 234/123/25/test.jpg
I think that this system if far from being ideal - it has many serious
disadvantages, i have mentioned it only as an example. But i really
think that In-Portal needs to get some automated system, which would
help to deal with large number of files without of any additional custom
code.
I invite you to discuss on this.