Re: [RFC] What should we do with FAT inode numbers?

Matti Aarnio (matti.aarnio@sonera.fi)
Sat, 16 Jan 1999 18:27:22 +0200 (EET)

Alexander Viro <viro@math.psu.edu> wrote:
> Problem: inode numbers on FAT-derived systems are completely
> fscked up. Period. Amount of races in msdosfs code may exceed one in
> MSDOS kernel (after all, the later is single-tasking). I hoped that we
> might postpone fixing that stuff till 2.3, but...
> FAT-derived filesystems use directory entry location as inode
> number. ...

I have understood that the *FAT format uses some chain of
cluster indices, and unless the file *physically* moves,
the head of the chain stays put, never mind possible renames
et.al. even unlink won't change that value (thus fstat() will
be stable for unlinked files too!)

/Matti Aarnio <matti.aarnio@sonera.fi>

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