Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ra!Ra.MsState.Edu!fwp1 From: fwp1@CC.MsState.Edu (Frank Peters) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: SYS V - What is Inode 1 ? Message-ID: Date: 19 Jan 91 23:35:57 GMT References: <1991Jan19.123830.8859@micromuse.co.uk> Sender: usenet@ra.MsState.Edu Organization: Computing Center, Mississippi State University Lines: 31 Nntp-Posting-Host: jester.cc.msstate.edu In-reply-to: peter@micromuse's message of 19 Jan 91 12:38:30 GMT In article <1991Jan19.123830.8859@micromuse.co.uk> peter@micromuse (Peter Galbavy) writes: For a while now I have been trying to find out - for no good reason - what inode 1 is reserved for in ATT SYSV. Whether the same is true for other UN*X's I do not know, but whatever V.2 or V.3 release I have seen, the root directory of a file system is always (as far as I have seen) inode 2. I remember finding a quote along the lines of 'inode 1 is reserved for future use' in a manual somewhere. Anyone out there know the reason ? And is it a good one ? From the inode man page for SunOS 4.1: The root inode is the root of the file system. Inode 0 can- not be used for normal purposes and historically bad blocks were linked to inode 1, thus the root inode is 2 (inode 1 is no longer used for this purpose, however numerous dump tapes make this assumption, so we are stuck with it). The lost+found directory is given the next available inode when it is initially created by mkfs(8). Is backwards compatibility a good reason? Depends upon whether you need it I guess. FWP -- -- Frank Peters Internet: fwp1@CC.MsState.Edu Bitnet: FWP1@MsState Phone: (601)325-2942 FAX: (601)325-8921