Just for the record, I've long wished that Craig's code had been the code that 'won' the upload.module contest the last time this issue went around. Any chances we could open this debate in earnest with the possible goal of replacing upload.module? (putting on my body armour now) cheers, Robert
I have an alternative file system management module and an equivalent of upload module which uses it that allows the system admin to specify the max number of files in a directory. Look in modules under filemanager and attachment. These modules allow multiple files with the same name as well as allow modules to have both private (permissions enforced with Drupal) and public (no php code involved in the download) concurrently. Also the attachment module does not suffer from simultaneous upload race problems (http://drupal.org/node/11060) nor does it rely on the users logging out to free up space used by uploaded files that where not submitted.
Craig