hash buckets

[Brian J. Murrell]

Happy New Year all you hackers out there!

Ted (and gang), I noticed that there seems to be a constant defined in the
server which is used when setting up the hash tables and doing the hashing
that produces a table with 97 (IIRC) hash buckets.

I am just wondering why 97?

I guess in looking at the capacity of our server, I am thinking that the
hash tables in my server(s) are probably pretty (over-)loaded.  Any advise
on picking a new number?  A text I read recently prescribed a load of no
more than 2 to 3 per bucket.  It seems obvious what the penalties of too
few hash buckets are, but what penalties exist for too many, beyond the
obvious of having unused resource?

Is the hashing algorithm somehow tuned for 97 buckets?  If I wanted to
increase the number of buckets should I replace the algorithm too?

Considering I have (using a simple grep, sort and uniq searching algorithm)
12000 leases in my leases file, does 97 hash buckets not sound a little
few?  Even the most uniform hashing algorithm is going to create buckets
with 127 leases in them.

Anybody else modifying the number of hash buckets you are using?  What load
factor did you choose and why?

Thanx,
b.



--
Brian J. Murrell                                    Brian_Murrell at ssd.bctel.net
BCTel Advanced Communications                                      604 454 5279
Vancouver, B.C.