Directory representation in UNIX

Question

Describe briefly about the directory representation in UNIX?

Answer 1

A UNIX directory is a file having a correspondence between inodes and filenames. A directory is a special file which the kernel maintains. Only kernel transforms directories, however processes can read directories. The contents of a directory are a list of inode number pairs and filename. Whenever new directories are created, kernel makes two entries named '.' (Or refers to the directory itself) and '..' (Or refers to parent directory). System call for making directory is mkdir (mode or, pathname).