Directories

• For example, to open /home/mjd/.profile:

  • / is always in inode 2 of the root filesystem

    • (Unless the process has done chroot)

  • Open inode 2, read in the data, look for home, get the i-number

  • Open the inode for home, read in the data, look for mjd, get the i-number

  • Open the inode for mjd, read in the data, look for .profile, get the i-number

  • Open the inode for .profile, read in the data, build a struct inode

  • The system file pointer table gets a pointer to this struct inode

    • The process's file descriptor table has a pointer to the file pointer

• Incidentally, lseek adjusts the number in the open file table

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Copyright © 2001 M. J. Dominus