phd_ivo@gsbacd.uchicago.edu (06/19/89)
I have a set of files which never change on my harddisk. I would like to index them, so that a program can open any of these files without having to first read the directory entry. Is there a way I can open files by some other obtained information (e.g. an inode?) and not waste time with a directory access? Which function(s) would I use to construct such an index? My Unix version is Mach (a BSD 4.3 clone in many ways). Help is appreciated. Thanks. /ivo
mjs@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Michael J Spitzer) (06/20/89)
In article <3941@tank.uchicago.edu> phd_ivo@gsbacd.uchicago.edu writes: >I have a set of files which never change on my harddisk. I would like >to index them, so that a program can open any of these files without >having to first read the directory entry. Is there a way I can open >files by some other obtained information (e.g. an inode?) and not >waste time with a directory access? There is no efficent way to access a file from user level given only its inode number. The 4.3BSD namei already maintains a name-cache for name -> inode translations, so you generally won't be "wasting time" doing a directory lookup if the file has already been referenced. -mjs -- Michael J. Spitzer Purdue University Computing Center mjs@mentor.cc.purdue.edu pur-ee!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!mjs