> I don't know how
> I'll know if I see performance issues relating to the signup files,

The main symptom is that users are complaining about slow login time in the
web interface. I have to say that I have not personally heard that in the
last few years (which does not mean nobody has experienced it). Most people
have at least 1GHz, 1G RAM and high-density 7200rpm drives. With that
hardware, you can do a lot of web logins per second even with oversized
SIGNUP files. It was different back when drives had transfer rates in the
3M/sec range. If your SIGNUP file grew to, say, 10M, in a worst-case
scenario and without HPO it could take 3 seconds to log in, and that is not
acceptable. With an entry-level anno 2005 drive, that same file would take
less than 0.5 sec to read.

I've also found another reason why REGISTER OFF is slow: it is a wildcard
search. I think this command was added primarily to clean up last year's
student data before registration. Anyway, it was not meant for intensive
use. You would get better performance with FOR xxx REGISTER OFF, but that
would not be silent.

  Eric