Performance workflow

In general terms is it better to move files through folders with few rules per folder rather than have a lot of rules on one folder?

I have 25 rules (and I need more) to sort pdf's into subfolders based on content and I have all of them on an *inbox* at the moment, if I drop a lot of files into it, hazel eventually stops, and it appears that a helper has got stuck as further attempts to run rules show hazelworker[1935] Another hazelworker process is processing folder (null). Exiting.

So I was wondering if I created a folder cascade would this be better for hazel?

e.g. sort folder 1 tests five rules, no match moves to sort folder 2 which tests five rules and if no match moves to next folder etc.

It depends. That log message is not harmful at all and can be ignored.

If it works and performance is acceptable, I wouldn't worry about it. If you find it takes too long, then it might help to break it up or divide it in logical ways so that no one process does all the work.

I waited a *very* long time and nothing happened in the folder - all the rules stopped processing.

I took all the files out, put a few back and restarted everything but when I added 100 or so files it stops processing the folder again.

which is the limiting factor, files or rules, or both?

If I have 1 rule per folder and 1000 files and 25 folder is that going to work faster than 25 rules and 1000 files?

You'll need to look at the logs and see what is happening when it stops. It might be stuck doing something really time consuming.