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What is Inode?

A data structure in Unix filesystems that stores metadata about a file, excluding its name and data.

An inode contains information about a file including its size, ownership, permissions, timestamps, and pointers to the data blocks. Each file has a unique inode number within its filesystem.

The inode does not store the filename — that mapping is maintained in directory entries. This is why hard links work: multiple directory entries can point to the same inode.

Related Terms

Swap Space
A portion of disk storage used as virtual memory when physical RAM is fully utilized.
Chown
A command to change the owner and group of files and directories in Linux.
RAID
Redundant Array of Independent Disks — a technology combining multiple physical drives into a single unit for performance, redundancy, or both.
ACL (Access Control List)
An extension to standard Linux file permissions that allows setting fine-grained access rights for specific users and groups beyond owner/group/other.
Journald
The systemd journal daemon that collects and stores log data from services, the kernel, and boot messages in a structured binary format.
Systemctl
The primary command for managing systemd services, including starting, stopping, enabling, and checking service status.
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