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Get inode number of a file on linux

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An inode is a data structure in UNIX operating systems that contains important information pertaining to files within a file system. When a file system is created in UNIX, a set amount of inodes is created, as well. Usually, about 1 percent of the total file system disk space is allocated to the inode table.
How do we find a file's inode?

ls -i Command: display inode

$ls -i /etc/bashrc
131094 /etc/bashrc

131094 is the inode of /etc/bashrc.

stat Command: display Inode

$stat /etc/bashrc
  File: `/etc/bashrc'
  Size: 1386          Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: fd00h/64768d    Inode: 131094      Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2013-12-10 10:01:29.509908811 -0800
Modify: 2013-06-06 11:31:51.792356252 -0700
Change: 2013-06-06 11:31:51.792356252 -0700

find command: display inode

$find ./ -iname sysfs_fc_tools.tar -printf '%p %i\n'
./sysfs_fc_tools.tar 28311964

Notes :
    %p stands for file path
    %i stands for inode number

tree command: display inode under a directory

#tree -a -L 1 --inodes /etc
/etc
├── [ 132896]  a2ps
├── [ 132898]  a2ps.cfg
├── [ 132897]  a2ps-site.cfg
├── [ 133315]  acpi
├── [ 131864]  adjtime
├── [ 132340]  akonadi
...

Other type of usecase of using inode

find / -inum XXXXXX -print to find the full path for each file pointing to inode XXXXXX.

Though you can use the example to do rm action, but simply I discourage to do so, for security concern in find command, also in other file system, same inode refers a very different file.

filesystem repair

If you get a bad luck on your filesystem, most of time, run fsck to fix it. It helps if you have inode info of the filesystem in hand.
This is another big topic, I'll have another article for it.





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