diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/model/DirectoryBrowserSupport.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/model/DirectoryBrowserSupport.java
index b5f3e77930bb6f10828db272cf3a3c7e8701beda..695547d07231958f78a153c43c2513d6e3a6ea34 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/model/DirectoryBrowserSupport.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/model/DirectoryBrowserSupport.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ package hudson.model;
 
 import hudson.FilePath;
 import hudson.Util;
+import hudson.remoting.Callable;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
@@ -34,10 +35,8 @@ import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.Comparator;
-import java.util.IdentityHashMap;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Locale;
-import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.StringTokenizer;
 import java.util.logging.Level;
 import java.util.logging.Logger;
@@ -252,7 +251,7 @@ public final class DirectoryBrowserSupport implements HttpResponse {
             } else
             if(serveDirIndex) {
                 // serve directory index
-                glob = buildChildPaths(baseFile, req.getLocale());
+                glob = baseFile.run(new BuildChildPaths(baseFile, req.getLocale()));
             }
 
             if(glob!=null) {
@@ -431,7 +430,6 @@ public final class DirectoryBrowserSupport implements HttpResponse {
 
     private static final class FileComparator implements Comparator<VirtualFile> {
         private Collator collator;
-        private final Map<VirtualFile,Boolean> isDirCache = new IdentityHashMap<VirtualFile,Boolean>();
 
         FileComparator(Locale locale) {
             this.collator = Collator.getInstance(locale);
@@ -445,18 +443,9 @@ public final class DirectoryBrowserSupport implements HttpResponse {
             return this.collator.compare(lhs.getName(), rhs.getName());
         }
 
-        private boolean isDirectory(VirtualFile f) throws IOException {
-            Boolean known = isDirCache.get(f);
-            if (known == null) {
-                known = f.isDirectory();
-                isDirCache.put(f, known);
-            }
-            return known;
-        }
-
         private int dirRank(VirtualFile f) {
             try {
-            if(isDirectory(f))     return 0;
+            if(f.isDirectory())     return 0;
             else                    return 1;
             } catch (IOException ex) {
                 return 0;
@@ -464,6 +453,17 @@ public final class DirectoryBrowserSupport implements HttpResponse {
         }
     }
 
+    private static final class BuildChildPaths implements Callable<List<List<Path>>,IOException> {
+        private final VirtualFile cur;
+        private final Locale locale;
+        BuildChildPaths(VirtualFile cur, Locale locale) {
+            this.cur = cur;
+            this.locale = locale;
+        }
+        @Override public List<List<Path>> call() throws IOException {
+            return buildChildPaths(cur, locale);
+        }
+    }
     /**
      * Builds a list of list of {@link Path}. The inner
      * list of {@link Path} represents one child item to be shown
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/jenkins/util/VirtualFile.java b/core/src/main/java/jenkins/util/VirtualFile.java
index e0180f6dedecca34f4be3625525c7e7387b48fbc..1a54d08545e0450a6125f417948a7275b669c3d2 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/jenkins/util/VirtualFile.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/jenkins/util/VirtualFile.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ package jenkins.util;
 
 import hudson.FilePath;
 import hudson.model.DirectoryBrowserSupport;
+import hudson.remoting.Callable;
 import hudson.remoting.Channel;
 import hudson.remoting.VirtualChannel;
 import hudson.util.DirScanner;
@@ -34,6 +35,7 @@ import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.Serializable;
 import java.net.URI;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -56,7 +58,7 @@ import javax.annotation.Nonnull;
  * @see FilePath
  * @since 1.532
  */
-public abstract class VirtualFile implements Comparable<VirtualFile> {
+public abstract class VirtualFile implements Comparable<VirtualFile>, Serializable {
     
     /**
      * Gets the base name, meaning just the last portion of the path name without any
@@ -184,13 +186,34 @@ public abstract class VirtualFile implements Comparable<VirtualFile> {
         return toURI().toString();
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Does some calculations in batch.
+     * For a remote file, this can be much faster than doing the corresponding operations one by one as separate requests.
+     * The default implementation just calls the block directly.
+     * @param <V> a value type
+     * @param <T> the exception type
+     * @param callable something to run all at once (only helpful if any mentioned files are on the same system)
+     * @return the callable result
+     * @throws IOException if remote communication failed
+     * @since 1.554
+     */
+    public <V> V run(Callable<V,IOException> callable) throws IOException {
+        return callable.call();
+    }
+
     /**
      * Creates a virtual file wrapper for a local file.
      * @param f a disk file (need not exist)
      * @return a wrapper
      */
     public static VirtualFile forFile(final File f) {
-        return new VirtualFile() {
+        return new FileVF(f);
+    }
+    private static final class FileVF extends VirtualFile {
+        private final File f;
+        FileVF(File f) {
+            this.f = f;
+        }
             @Override public String getName() {
                 return f.getName();
             }
@@ -238,7 +261,6 @@ public abstract class VirtualFile implements Comparable<VirtualFile> {
             @Override public InputStream open() throws IOException {
                 return new FileInputStream(f);
             }
-        };
     }
 
     /**
@@ -247,7 +269,13 @@ public abstract class VirtualFile implements Comparable<VirtualFile> {
      * @return a wrapper
      */
     public static VirtualFile forFilePath(final FilePath f) {
-        return new VirtualFile() {
+        return new FilePathVF(f);
+    }
+    private static final class FilePathVF extends VirtualFile {
+        private final FilePath f;
+        FilePathVF(FilePath f) {
+            this.f = f;
+        }
             @Override public String getName() {
                 return f.getName();
             }
@@ -328,7 +356,13 @@ public abstract class VirtualFile implements Comparable<VirtualFile> {
             @Override public InputStream open() throws IOException {
                 return f.read();
             }
-        };
+            @Override public <V> V run(Callable<V,IOException> callable) throws IOException {
+                try {
+                    return f.act(callable);
+                } catch (InterruptedException x) {
+                    throw (IOException) new IOException(x.toString()).initCause(x);
+                }
+            }
     }
     private static final class Scanner implements FilePath.FileCallable<String[]> {
         private final String glob;