FS / inode / vnode refresher

Tue Jun 15 15:29:39 PDT 2004

"Roy S. Rapoport" <rsr at inorganic.org> writes:

> I've been a sysadmin for about 12 years now, and have a pretty decent
> understanding of most things sysadmin.  I've got enough of an understanding
> of how the UNIX filesystem works to explain, say, how files are stored, in
> general, what inodes are, and what the diff between symlinks and hard links
> is.  
>
> I need to bone up on the lower-level details for an interview next week.
> Having already done this on the network side (TCP/IP Illustrated is your
> friend), I'm looking for refresher material on filesystem organization,
> hopefully at a similar level (in other words, I'm looking for something
> deeper than "a directory contains a bunch of files" and something a little
> more relevant and high-level than "here's the code to directly manipulate
> inodes").  At the same time, I have to shamefully admit that I'm trying to
> figure out what the difference between an inode and a vnode is (remember,
> there are no stupid questions, only stupid people).  

The original papers by McKusick and Leffler on FFS and fsck are easy
to read and a nice intro.  There have been plenty of changes since
they were written, but it's a good start.

-- 
Ted Cabeen           http://www.pobox.com/~secabeen            ted at impulse.net 
Check Website or Keyserver for PGP/GPG Key BA0349D2         secabeen at pobox.com
"I have taken all knowledge to be my province." -F. Bacon  secabeen at cabeen.org
"Human kind cannot bear very much reality."-T.S.Eliot        cabeen at netcom.com