# Maximum Limit for index

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/maximum-limit-for-index/156971>\
**Category:** Ferret\
**Created:** [January 5, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/maximum-limit-for-index/156971 "2009-01-05T22:38:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![xwordguy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/65b543/32.png) [@xwordguy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/xwordguy)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/maximum-limit-for-index/156971/1 "2009-01-05T22:38:31Z")

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Is there a maximum size for the index files created with acts\_as\_ferret?

We have a web application that we pre-load a single table in a database  
with records. Then do a search. This creates the index files for us.

The above works fine when we load in 146,000 records (index directory  
size gets to 65MB), but when we load in 1,460,000 records, the initial  
search to create the index files from scratch never ends (we let it run  
for 2 weeks). Simple searches will return results, but not as many as  
there should be. More complex results don’t return anything (seems to  
time-out). The index directory size gets to 469MB when we expect it to  
get to around 650MB.

We are thinking there might be a size limit. Is there?

Thanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xwordguy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/65b543/32.png) [@xwordguy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/xwordguy)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 6:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/maximum-limit-for-index/156971/2 "2009-01-17T18:03:32Z")

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Kevin Morgan wrote:

> Is there a maximum size for the index files created with acts\_as\_ferret?
> 
> The above works fine when we load in 146,000 records (index directory  
> size gets to 65MB), but when we load in 1,460,000 records, the initial  
> search to create the index files from scratch never ends (we let it run  
> for 2 weeks). Simple searches will return results, but not as many as  
> there should be. More complex results don’t return anything (seems to  
> time-out). The index directory size gets to 469MB when we expect it to  
> get to around 650MB.

i’m intrested in this too… is there any limit with ferret?