On Sat, 16 Mar 2019 18:59:20 -0400, Paul wrote:

"Everything.exe" indexes in two stages, if it is starting
from scratch.

It reads the $MFT and parses it. This gives a list
of file names, but not their size or creation date.
This might take two seconds. The voidtools designers
really should have stopped at this point.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and they didn't stop at that point,
probably recognizing that a search tool with such a limited set of
capabilities would be essentially worthless.

It's the second phase which is more expensive. If they
want to add dates and sizes and so on, file details,
that requires "walking the tree".

Finally, at some point, the "list" needs sorting.
Perhaps as a means of reducing search time on actual
searches (binary probing?).

None of these activities should particularly leave
the CPU railed, forever... Sorting a list takes
time. But not infinite time.


--

Char Jackson