i-node

Tags

comp-arch

Is a file system structure pooled near the bottom blocks of the file-system which is used to map names (files/directories) to blocks. Each i-node describes one file.

File data blocks (including directories) live above the i-nodes in higher numbered blocks.

Every i-node contains a list of the disk block numbers used by the file it describes, but it doesn't track the name of the file itself. File names live in a directory structure that simply maps names to i-node numbers. This is why a file can have multiple true names (hard links). The only true reference to a file is an i-node and a hard link is just another directory entry pointing to the same i-node.