Tons of folders in /uploads

[Swanny]

I don't know if this is a bug or what.

So I normally completely ignore the /uploads folder when doing upgrades of PP. I had a user complain that they got an error message so I had to take a look in the uploads/112234 folder to see what was going on.

Now I've got over 110,000 members (phpbb) and apparently the uploads folder contains folders for pretty much any user who has uploaded a picture. So I have hundreds if not thousands of seemingly empty folders.

So....
1) Are these folders supposed to stay there even after a user has uploaded their photos?
2) If so, why would they stay there empty? They serve no purpose, as they can be recreated if the user uploads again.
3) Can I safely delete all the folders as I don't like looking at them all
4) Can the PP script be modified to delete the /uploads/userid folder once all uploads are successful?

[Chuck S]

1. yes

2. why would we delete them they are only created if they dont exist

3. thats fine as long as uploads is 777 permissions

4. if you choose thats up to you.

[Swanny]

I get that but what's the point in leaving those folders there after the photos are successfully uploaded? It just seems like clutter to me (no offense intended).

[Chuck S]

well goes back to what I have already stated. I upload to the gallery and a folder is created. why would we create that every single time I upload. Only makes sense to create it once. There is no harm done leaving the directory.

[pistebasher]

But many hosts set a limit to the number of files (or inodes) that is quite restrictive - e.g. 50,000 (especially when 1 photo can = 3 files, thumb, med and large). Would those empty directories not count towards that limit?

[Chuck S]

This user is talking about the uploads directory. Your talking about the data directory totally different directories there. The uploads directory only contains a users uploads until they are processed I doubt you would ever have a user trying to upload 50000 at a time.