How about we just let all inode numbers on FAT be zero?

Colin Plumb (colin@nyx.net)
Sat, 16 Jan 1999 16:52:51 -0700 (MST)


I was recently challenged:

>> Of course, you could just return inode number 0 for everything and
>> let the core dump where it may.

> Try to convince Linus in that.

And you know, maybe that *is* the right answer. Just teach the backup
software that inode number zero means there are no hard links and
the kernel's tired of lying to it.

Yes, this affects a lot of applications, but it's a trivial fix to each
one.

There just *is* no good fix the the FAT inode number problem for zero-length
files. There is no way to distinguish

mv foo bar
touch baz

from

touch bar
mv foo baz

-- 
	-Colin

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