Directory File Inode Structure

Benjamin I. Goldfarb goldfarb at farbmac.UUCP
Thu Jun 1 20:36:30 AEST 1989


In article <1545 at doctor.ATT.COM>, bmadhyan at doctor.ATT.COM (Bharat Madhyani ) writes:
> Every directory entry is 16 bytes long. First 2 bytes are for the inode#
> and the rest of the bytes (i.e 14) are for the filename. In Unix no
> filename can exceed more than 14 characters. If the filename is less
> than 14 characters , it is appended by null characters.

Funny.  I was just sitting here on my Berkeley 4.3 system editing a file
called ThisGuysGotANarrowViewOfUnix, which sorta exceeds 14 characters,
and when I did an ls it sorta appeared in its entirety.  Is my UNIX
brain-damaged?  (All right, guys...no comebacks about Berkeley bogosity!)

For your enlightenment, Bharat: Berkeley has allowed 255 character file names
since 4.2 whether anybody likes it or not.  Portability is obviously compromised
when file names longer than 14 characters are used but that still doesn't
validate your incorrect statement.

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Ben Goldfarb			uucp: {decvax,peora}!ucf-cs!farbmac!goldfarb
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