[cormacrelf]

Try the web server Redbean. You put it all in a single zip file, serving a file simply copies the pre-gzipped content directly into a tcp stream. Obviously some of the FS read performance cost is moved into navigating the zip file, but the storage overhead is not, and nor is the read+write-able nature of the FS.

[marginalia_nu]

Do zip files really offer performant random access with tens of millions of entries?

[michael1999]

I don't see why they wouldn't as long as the TOC (i.e. filenames + headers) fits in ram. The offsets are all there for a simple seek.

[cormacrelf]

Yeah. Tens of millions sounds fine. And you don’t have to keep navigating the raw zip file, you just do it once. “All file offsets available in a single immutable in-memory hash map” is basically the dream scenario. I imagine if you were desperate you could pack more in by representing your file names efficiently in memory, a bit of path compression or a trie or whatever, but if it already works it already works.

[tinus_hn]

Yes, that’s why for instance Java uses it to store large amounts of class files.