What Is an Inode?
An inode is the data structure a Unix filesystem uses to describe a file, holding its size, permissions, timestamps, ownership, and pointers to its data blocks, but not its name. Directory entries map names to inode numbers, so one inode can have several names. A filesystem has a finite number of inodes set when it is created.
Why it matters
A build can fail with a no-space error even with free disk if it exhausts inodes by creating millions of tiny files. Inodes also explain how hard links and renames work without copying data.
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