Files in the journaled file system (JFS) are represented internally as index nodes (i-nodes). Journaled file system i-nodes exist in a static form on disk and contain access information for the file as well as pointers to the real disk addresses of the file's data blocks. The number of disk i-nodes available to a file system is dependent on the size of the file system, the allocation group size (8 MB by default), and the number of bytes per i-node ratio (4096 by default). These parameters are given to the mkfs command at file system creation. When enough files have been created to use all the available i-nodes, no more files can be created, even if the file system has free space. The number of available i-nodes can be determined by using the df -v command. Disk i-nodes are defined in the /usr/include/jfs/ino.h file.
When a file is opened, an in-core i-node is created by the operating system. The in-core i-node contains a copy of all the fields defined in the disk i-node, plus additional fields for tracking the in-core i-node. In-core i-nodes are defined in the /usr/include/jfs/inode.h file.
Each disk i-node in the journaled file system (JFS) is a 128-byte structure.
The offset of a particular i-node within the i-node list of the file system produces the unique number (i-number) by which the operating system identifies the i-node. A bit map, known as the i-node map, tracks the availability of free disk i-nodes for the file system.
Disk i-nodes include the following
information:
It is impossible to change the data of a file without changing the i-node, but it is possible to change the i-node without changing the contents of the file. For example, when permission is changed, the information within the i-node (i_ctime) is modified, but the data in the file remains the same.
The i_rdaddr field within the disk i-node contains 8 disk addresses. These addresses point to the first 8 data blocks assigned to the file. The i_rindirect field address points to an indirect block. Indirect blocks are either single indirect or double indirect. Thus, there are three possible geometries of block allocation for a file: direct, indirect, or double indirect. Use of the indirect block and other file space allocation geometries are discussed in the article JFS File Space Allocation .
Disk i-nodes do not contain file or path name information. Directory entries are used to link file names to i-nodes. Any i-node can be linked to many file names by creating additional directory entries with the link or symlink subroutine. To discover the i-node number assigned to a file, use the ls -i command.
The i-nodes that represent files that define devices contain slightly different information from i-nodes for regular files. Files associated with devices are called special files. There are no data block addresses in special device files, but the major and minor device numbers are included in the i_rdev field.
In normal situations, a disk i-node is released when the link count (i_nlink) to the i-node equals 0. Links represent the file names associated with the i-node. When the link count to the disk i-node is 0, all the data blocks associated with the i-node are released to the bit map of free data blocks for the file system. The i-node is then placed on the free i-node map.
When a file is opened, the information in the disk i-node is copied into an in-core i-node for easier access. The in-core i-node structure contains additional fields which manage access to the disk i-node's valuable data. The fields of the in-core i-node are defined in the inode.h file. Some of the additional information tracked by the in-core i-node is:
When an in-core i-node is released (for instance with the close subroutine), the in-core i-node reference count is reduced by 1. If this reduction results in the reference count to the in-core i-node becoming 0, the i-node is released from the in-core i-node table, and the contents of the in-core i-node are written to the disk copy of the i-node (if the two versions differ).
Chapter 5, File Systems and Directories
Understanding Generic I-nodes (G-nodes)
The close subroutine