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Inode number changes for a file in Redhat Linux

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Operating Systems Linux Inode number changes for a file in Redhat Linux
# 1  
Old 10-09-2014
Inode number changes for a file in Redhat Linux
Hi,

I have created a file a.txt in Redhat Linux.

Inode number for a file changes every time i update the file using vi editor , gedit etc.

Is there any setting that can be made , such that inode number never changes as that is supposed to be the expected behavior?

Or if we cannot restrict the inode number change , is there a way to identify the file uniquely as inode number does.

I need a way to differentiate between a.txt that is modified and a.txt that was created after renaming the earlier a..txt to a.txt.1

Kindly reply

Thanks in Advance.
Sriram
Last edited by srirammanohar; 10-09-2014 at 09:50 AM..
# 2  
Old 10-09-2014
Hi,

You can look at the Inode detail using the "stat" command as follows;

Code:
[root@ekbit13 bin]# stat a
  File: `a'
  Size: 32        	Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 811h/2065d	Inode: 2097756     Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: (  505/ sc386dm)   Gid: (  500/ sc386dm)
Access: 2014-10-07 09:54:27.132865927 +0100
Modify: 2014-09-10 16:24:31.432147640 +0100
Change: 2014-09-10 16:24:31.432147640 +0100

Regards

Dave
# 3  
Old 10-09-2014
Yes I have used the stat command to determine Inode.
The problem is when I modify the file, the inode changes , even though it is supposed to be the same.


Code:
bash-2.05$ stat c.txt
  File: `c.txt'
  Size: 92807           Blocks: 192        IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: ca02h/51714d    Inode: 35225883    Links: 1
Access: (0666/-rw-rw-rw-)  Uid: (559587/    srmm)   Gid: ( 8500/     dba)
Access: 2014-10-08 22:52:27.000000000 -0700
Modify: 2014-10-08 22:34:42.000000000 -0700
Change: 2014-10-08 22:34:42.000000000 -0700
bash-2.05$ gedit c.txt
bash-2.05$ stat c.txt
  File: `c.txt'
  Size: 92813           Blocks: 192        IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: ca02h/51714d    Inode: 35225885    Links: 1
Access: (0666/-rw-rw-rw-)  Uid: (559587/    srmm)   Gid: ( 8500/     dba)
Access: 2014-10-08 22:53:11.000000000 -0700
Modify: 2014-10-08 22:53:11.000000000 -0700
Change: 2014-10-08 22:53:11.000000000 -0700

Last edited by vbe; 10-09-2014 at 05:17 AM..
# 4  
Old 10-09-2014
Quote:
Originally Posted by srirammanohar
Hi,

I have created a file a.txt in Redhat Linux.

Inode number for a file get changes every time i update the file using vi editor , gedit etc.

Is there any setting that can be made , such that inode number never gets changed?

Or if we cannot restrict from inode number getting changed , is there any way to identify the file uniquely as inode number does.

I need a way to differentiate between a.txt that is modified and a.txt that was created after renaming the earlier a..txt to a.txt.1

Kindly reply

Thanks in Advance.
Sriram
If there are multiple links to a file, vi file should not change the i-node number. If there is only one link to a file and you make any changes to the file using vi, it is more efficient to rename the temp file to the final resting place rather than copy the temp file onto the original file and then remove the temp file.

Why do you care if the i-node number changes? Why isn't the file's name (a.txt) sufficient for identifying the file?

(Note that ls -i and ls -li will also give you the i-node number even on systems that don't have the stat utility.)
# 5  
Old 10-09-2014
Hey thanks,
I need a way to uniquely determine if a log file is rotated/rolled up or not.
In case it is rotated, the original log file (a.log) will be renamed to a.log.1 and a new a.log is created. So the new a.log will have a different inode no. This way I can determine if a log file has been rotated or not. However ,if the inode no changes for every modification I cannot check if a file is rotated/rolled up or not.
Can you think of some other file attribute that will help me uniquely identify this?
Is there a way to keep the inode constant?
# 6  
Old 10-09-2014
This is just a wild guess - I can not reproduce your findings on my systems and I have no gedit available.
vi usually creates a swap file which you work on instead of the original file. Maybe your vi-implementation replaces the original file with the swap file. vim 7.3 offers the -n flag to disallow the creation of the swap file (:set uc=0 should do the same).
# 7  
Old 10-09-2014
Though this problem reproduces with VI and gedit, this happens when we perform file handling operations using java C and perl. In these cases, the files are modified by the program. Do you think the issue is more related to an OS ?
So say, a java program creates and modifies a file, with each modification the inode changes. This happens not just in my machine but in multiple machines. Can we work around this behavior somehow?
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