unsuited for files accessed by computationĭefault 5GB in home directory on Beskow and Tegner.Comparison summary of AFS and Lustre ¶ File system Use such flags only when the extra information is really needed and do not have them as default. Open files as read-only if possible – read-only files require less locking and therefore put less load on the file system.Īvoid using ls with flags like -l, -F, or -color as this requires ls to stat() every file to determine its type, which puts an unnecessary load on the file system. Do not check the existence of files or stat() files too often. Avoid creating directories with very large numbers of files – instead create directory hierarchies, which also improves interactiveness.Īvoid all unnecessary metadata operations – once a file is opened, do as much as possible before closing it again.Avoid creating too many files – post-processing a large number of files can be very hard on the file system.Minimize I/O operations: larger input/output (I/O) operations are more efficient than small ones – if possible aggregate reads/writes into larger blocks.Things to remember when using all types of files