unless gpsapp mlock'd that function...

But at this point, I'd be inclined to agree that the effort wouldn't be justified for just this reason. I do wonder whether it might be worth mlocking just enough of the menu structure so that gpsapp always appears responsive to user input, even if everything else is paged out. But that's another story.

I still think it's worth stating the directory early though. From the usability aspect, people tend to accept delays in loading files more than they do when listing them, and it'd be more consistent with delays elsewhere on the empeg - eg Playlist loading, the delay happens at the load.