Inodes are the units of storage on a Linux filesystem. Every file, directory, and block device has an inode associated with it, which is essentially a pointer to where the file is located in the filesystem. Inodes also have other properties such as their size and owner and group ID. If a file or directory is deleted, the inode will be marked as deleted and all data associated with that inode will be removed as well.
Inodes are an important resource for both performance and security. There are a number of reasons why they can be important:
* For performance, inodes are used to determine how much space a file occupies, so they can be used to optimize the placement of files that are likely to change frequently. When a file is created or moved between partitions, it must go through the inode stage first.
* For security, there are two main roles for inodes:
indexing and
ACLs (access control lists).
* Indexing allows tools like locate or grep to quickly find files by name or location.
* ACLs allow users to control access to their files based on permissions assigned by their system administrator.
In addition, having all files written to disk as soon as they are modified can help prevent data loss due to power outages or other unforeseen events.
Finally, while most people might assume that inodes are used primarily for storing data on disk drives, Inodes are also used to track metadata about every file on your computer, as well as directories and other objects stored on your computer’s hard drive. This data is used to keep track of which files have been deleted, modified, or copied, and can also be used to determine the overall health and performance of your computer.
