> If someone would kindly point me at the kernel profiling app, I will
> recompile and profile the kernel.
>
> Don't bother. I'm 99.99% certain you'll find that get_empty_inode is the
> loser. I've already reported this and run some profiles for Linus...
>
Good, I had a cursory look at the fileopen code; is there any profit on
the old idea of a 'half open' chain. This was a George 3 idea which
effectively hid 'closed' files on double headed chain of finite length.
This provided a secondary cache of highly reusable files such directories.
The idea of course is to search the 'half open' chain for a filename first.
Dirk