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I have seen in this page that inodes have a link counter to know how many files (read: "directory entry") point to this inode. Is there a way to know which directories contain such entries without traversing the whole file system? Is this information stored somewhere?

struct inode {
    kdev_t                       i_dev;
    unsigned long                i_ino;
    umode_t                      i_mode;
    nlink_t                      i_nlink;
    uid_t                        i_uid;
    gid_t                        i_gid;
    …
};
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  • The fastest method - with traversal only - might be find -inum <n> -samefile path. Commented May 12, 2013 at 17:39
  • 2
    @ott-- find is used with either -inum or -samefile but not with both. Commented May 12, 2013 at 18:06
  • @HaukeLaging you're right, only one of them. Commented May 12, 2013 at 18:10

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No. Directory entries pointing to inodes are one-way links. The inodes do not point back to the directory entries.

In order to find a complete list of directory entries that point to an inode, you need to traverse the filesystem until you have found enough directory entries to account for the inode's link count.

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