Xref: utzoo comp.unix.questions:8207 comp.unix.wizards:9888 comp.sys.apollo:1118 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!amdahl!pacbell!att!whuts!picuxa!gpasq From: gpasq@picuxa.UUCP (Greg Pasquariello X1190) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.wizards,comp.sys.apollo Subject: Re: File space allocation/deallocation under Unix (BSD4.x) Keywords: Unix, BSD, File, Delete Message-ID: <624@picuxa.UUCP> Date: 13 Jul 88 13:11:50 GMT References: <9662@eddie.MIT.EDU> Reply-To: gpasq@picuxa.UUCP (Greg Pasquariello X1190) Organization: AT&T/EDS Product Integration Center Lines: 22 In article <9662@eddie.MIT.EDU> rich@eddie.MIT.EDU (Richard Caloggero) writes: > > > If you create a directory "d", then create a file "d/f" 1 megabyte >long (big), then "rm d/f", is it true that the space remains allocated >to directory "d" and cannot be garbage collected or otherwise reclaimed >until another file is created in directory "d" or "d" is deleted? If this is true, why? >-- > -- Rich (rich@eddie.mit.edu). No, this is not true. What really happens is the inode is removed (thereby "freeing" the disk space), but the filename remains in the directory (which is really just a file with special permissions that holds other file names and i-numbers). The i-number in the directory entry is zeroed, signifying a free slot in the directory. When a new file is created in that directory, any free slots are used for the new name and i-number rather than adding onto the directory file itself. -- ========================================================================= Greg Pasquariello AT&T Product Integration Center att!picuxa!gpasq 299 Jefferson Rd, Parsippany, NJ 07054 =========================================================================