200,000 images in single folder in linux, performance issue or not?

Question

I have a php/mysql website with over 200,000 images in single folder (linux server). I don\'t think, that I will never need to see them in

Answer 1

This paper over an ext2 variant for web scenarios might interest you: hashFS: Applying Hashing to Optimize File Systems for Small File Reads.

We have seen a better ext2 performance with a flat file set (more files in a directory) than a deep file set (deeper directory tree) for a web scenario (assumptions stated in paper).

Granted, in retrospect the evaluation should have been more extensive. But it might be worth reading.