What Is Inode Usage, And How Can We Reduce It - Linux - Site24x7

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Some background on how Inodes help

On a Linux system, files are stored in the form of blocks of a certain size. If a file is larger than this predetermined size, it’s broken down into chunks and stored in empty blocks wherever they’re available on the disk. With an increase in the number of files, this can easily get confusing. Inodes help the system organize data.

Even though inodes don't store the actual content of the file, they hold the locations of the various chunks for every file, along with other metadata, including:

  • The size of the file
  • Various storage devices and locations where files are stored
  • The access permissions associated with the files
  • Owner information for the files
  • Timestamps of the files (eg., date created, last modified, etc.)

As inodes don't store a file name, it doesn't matter if we cut and paste a file to a different location on the virtual disk or rename it—the file will still be physically located at the same location. This requires no change to the inode data, which is one of the features that makes them so flexible.

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