[Lilux-help] directory entries - how to get a close look

[Jay Christnach]

On Tuesday 27 April 2004 09:43, Eric Dondelinger wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> I'm currently preparing a course (for tomorrow, it's almost done).
> In this course, I explain the classic UNIX filesystem (stuff like
> inodes etc.).
> Now, I'd like to show the students "live" what the directory entries
> look like - they are files containing a table with the relation inode
> number to filename.
> IIRC it used to be that you could simply open such a file and look
> at the raw contents (hexdump or whatever) - this though doesn't work
> any more, if I try to open a directory directly with vi, cat, less,
> hexdump, xxd, od, it doesn't work.
> Does someone have an idea how I could get a close look at such a
> directory entry? Maybe how to directly access an inode, without
> going through the filename? [inode numbers can be had by using
> ls -i, I'd have liked to directly look at the directory entry
> itself].
> I asked around the office, the usual suspects have as little ideas
> as I do...
>
> Greets & thanks in advance,
>
> Eric


Dear Eric

have you tried testdisk? You may display raw sectors with it and also 
directory entries with inode numbers. I just had a look for you, I didn't 
find out though how to display the directory entries in raw format.
It's a rather uncomfortable program, I used it once to analyze a messy fat 
partition table (Windows wouldn't boot because of wrong chs to lba 
translation, really weard why it somehow still needs chs). Perhaps you find 
out how it can be used for your goal.