I know that C++ IOStreams are supposed to take over the world, and cstdio with FILE is considered taboo by some C++ efficionados. However, due to many reasons, lots of code still uses cstdio FILE I/O. One issue that comes up from time to time is the need to manage more files than the OS will allow a single process to have open simultaneously. I process tons of data, and this is an issue for me. I have developed a small library that provides on-demand caching of FILE pointers, so that an application can "open" as many FILEs as necessary, and use them as normal. A simple LRU eviction algorithm is used to reclaim FILEs when "all" have been used. I was discussing this library with another developer, and he said he has seen several questions recently about a similar issue, and he advised me to ask if there was interest here. This library, however, does not seem "on the edge" enough though... A very simple example of how you can use the library (of course there are better ways to do the following, but it is meant to be a small easy to use example). // Open 10,000 FILEs wjh::file_cache file_cache; std::vector<wjh::cached_fptr> fp; for (int i = 0; i < 10000; ++i) { std::stringstream strm; strm << "FILE_" << i; wjh::cached_fptr fptr = file_cache.open(strm.str().c_str(), "w"); if (!fptr) { std::cerr << strm.str() << ": " << strerror(errno) << std::endl; break; } fp.push_back(fptr); } // Randomly write to a particular file. for (int i = 0; i < 200000; ++i) { int x = rand() % fp.size(); fprintf(fp[x], "file %d, iteration %d\n", x, i); } Is it something useful for more than just me (and the pitiful souls who work for me and must use it) on this list? Is it something worth posting here?