Check Inode Table

rahmad · 01-01-2009, 08:31 AM

hi

I am wondering if i can see my ext3 partition's inode table. is that possible in linux? if yes, how?!

a_minor · 01-01-2009, 10:23 AM

if for example the name of you partition device is /dev/sdax (if you have SCSI hard disk) then you can see all of your partitions in(you must be root user) :

Code:

# fdisk /dev/sda
Command (m for help): p

and if you have entry of your partiotn in /etc/fstab, you can see it in filesystem table as this:

Code:

cat /etc/fstab

and if you have mounted it (even if it hasn't any entry in fstab) you can see its enry in mount table as this :

Code:

cat /etc/mtab

for seeing mtab and fstab , it isn't need for being
root user,

and for special ext3 file system, I prefer:
df -T| grep ext3

I hope this will help you

jschiwal · 01-01-2009, 12:08 PM

You can use the -li option to list the inode of a file. You can also use find to list the inode of file. The find command has a -printf subcommand that is flexible in what is printed.

The structures of a filesystem are in the kernel land domain, and are something that the kernel driver manipulates, unless it is done indirectly through system calls or via the fuse module. The fuse modules allow you to create filesystem that run in user land, using the full C environment.

On the other hand, if you have read/write access to the partition's device, you can do an end run around the kernel and manipulate the filesystem directly. This is what programs like fsck.ext3 and tune2fs do. You will need to run these programs as root. You could write your own program to examine ext3 file structures and display them how you wish. The source code for programs like fsck.ext3, or the ext3 driver in the kernel might help.

I don't know of any program which does exactly what you want. There is dumpe2fs which can display some information on ext3 filesystems, including the locations of the inode tables on the filesystem.

Code:

...
Group 2: (Blocks 65536-98303)
  Block bitmap at 65536 (+0), Inode bitmap at 65537 (+1)
  Inode table at 65538-66049 (+2)
  559 free blocks, 2318 free inodes, 208 directories
  Free blocks: 86655-86866, 86869-86898, 86900-86978, 86980-87206, 91852-91862
  Free inodes: 22236-22258, 22260, 22283-24576
...

Knowing the locations of the tables, you could use a disk bit editor or a program like hexdump or od to list areas on the disk.

You can also use dd to cut out a part of the filesystem and examine the file you saved instead of the actual tables on the disk.