On: Show HN: Dut – a fast Linux disk usage calculator

[Filligree]

NTFS is pointlessly slow, so bypassing the VFS provides a decent speedup in exchange for the ridiculous fragility.

Linux doesn’t have the same issue, and I’d be quite concerned if an application like this needed root access to function.

[luma → Filligree]

I think you underestimate how much of a speedup we're talking about: it can pull in the entire filesystem in a couple seconds on a multi TB volume with Bs of files. I have yet to see anything in the linux world (including the OP) that comes anywhere near this performance level via tree walking.

[ablob → Filligree]

I want to take this opportunity to recommend the talk "NTFS isn't that bad" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbKGw8MQ0i8). NTFS prefers a different access pattern than most usual file systems. I remember that a part of the talk was about speed-ups on Linux as well. So even if it doesn't sway your opinion it should enhance your perspective on how file systems work.

[p_l → Filligree]

The issue usually isn't NTFS, but the other layers in the I/O stack.

NTFS-the-on-disk-structure by itself can easily provide setup comparable to XFS realtime extensions.