Re: Alright, I give up. What does the "i" in "inode" stand for?

Rob Landley (landley@trommello.org)
Thu, 18 Jul 2002 20:21:30 -0400


On Friday 19 July 2002 01:40 am, Thunder from the hill wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Thu, 18 Jul 2002, Rob Landley wrote:
> > That's it, I'm going to go email Dennis Richie...
>
> If you want to be sure whether or not you can rely on index, you better go
> ask Maurice. I know another person who should have known that, but he's
> dead for quite long now. I never cared, unfortunately.
>
> Regards,
> Thunder

I emailed dmr but don't expect to hear from him before moring if he actually
notices my email at all.

I did track down my copy of The design of the unix operating system and sure
enough, on page 22, in section 2.2.1 (an overview of the file subsystem):

"The term inode is a contraction of the term <i>index node</i> and is
commonly used in literature on the UNIX system."

That's probably good enough for me, actually. Now my NEXT unanswered
question is why the heck Darpa's "Information Awareness Office" has a picture
of the Bavarian Illuminati in its logo, but I doubt that's something this
list can help me with. Me, I would have picked the gnomes of zurich. Or the
UFOs, for the second attack. Or in the expansion pack, The Networks, since
transferrable power is so useful anyway...

(P.S. I'm not quite kidding: http://www.darpa.mil/iao/ ).

Rob
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