Filesystem - VFS

Question 1

What is an inode

Answer 1

Describes and stores file attributes

Question 2

How are file names and inodes associated

Answer 2

Directory file, hard or soft links

Question 3

Name the virtual pseudo filesystems

Answer 3

/proc, /sys, /dev (and /tmp and /run)

Question 4

Describe the VFS

Answer 4

An abstraction layer which translates I/O calls to the code for the actual filesystem

Question 5

Name some Linux (supported) filesystems

Answer 5

EXT4, XFS, BTRFS, fat, NTFS, pseudo filesystems, NFS

Question 6

How can I list filesystem types?

Answer 6

cat /proc/filesystems

Question 7

What is a journaling filesystem?

Answer 7

Changes to the filesystem are only effected after a transaction (grouped fs operations) is successful. A log is kept.

Question 8

How can I find information on disk sectors etc.?

Answer 8

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

Question 9

Describe disk geometry

Answer 9

cylinders are groups of tracks on platters. Tracks are collections of sectors, usually 512 bytes. Partitions are contiguous cylinders/sectors

Question 10

Describe traditional partition organization

Answer 10

one MBR, with up to 4 primary partitions. One can be an extended partition, which can then hold up to 15 logical partitions

Question 11

Describe modern partition organization

Answer 11

GPT can hold up to 128 primary partitions

Question 12

Describe MBR partition table

Answer 12

446 bytes for boot record, then 16 bytes for each partition, then 2 more bytes for the magic number

Question 13

What is contained in a partition table entry?

Answer 13

active bit, begin address, partition type (ext4), ending address, start sector, number of sectors

Question 14

Describe GPT partition table

Answer 14

Protective MBR, GPT Header, Partition entries. GPT header and Partition entries at start and end of disk.