path name lookup in Linux?

Question

Linus Torvalds mentioned in a talk that path name lookup in Linux is the fastest of all OSes, and that can happen in 1000-core machines without any slow downs. He mentioned this work happened in the last 18 months, but I can't find any references to the details of this development. Are there any documents explaining it?

Answer 1

Check out your /usr/src/linux/Documentation/filesystems for the file path-lookup.txt or go to http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/path-lookup.txt - it explains it in detail.