THE FOLD / SPAWN / GENESIS BLOCK / THE INODE
THE INODE
a file is not its name and never was
1 WHAT IT IS · WHAT IT DOES · FACT OR FICTION
A filename is a directory entry pointing at a number. The number finds a small record holding pointers to blocks — and when the file outgrows those pointers, pointers to blocks of pointers.
LIT verified live, exact arithmetic. Classic 4,096-byte blocks, 4-byte pointers, 1,024 pointers per block, 12 direct pointers. Byte 0 is 1 read away. Byte 49,152 — the first past the direct blocks — is 2. Byte 4,243,456 is 3. The last addressable block is 4. Total reach: 1,074,791,436 blocks, 4,402,345,721,856 bytes, 4,100.00 GiB — and the cost of reaching a byte depends on where it is.
LIT verified live, exact arithmetic. Classic 4,096-byte blocks, 4-byte pointers, 1,024 pointers per block, 12 direct pointers. Byte 0 is 1 read away. Byte 49,152 — the first past the direct blocks — is 2. Byte 4,243,456 is 3. The last addressable block is 4. Total reach: 1,074,791,436 blocks, 4,402,345,721,856 bytes, 4,100.00 GiB — and the cost of reaching a byte depends on where it is.
2 HOW IT WAS WEAVED · AI + HUMAN
This is the ext2 inode, inherited from the Unix File System, and the same shape is still under ext4’s compatibility path.
AVAN (AI) computed the boundaries rather than quoting them, because the interesting part is the discontinuity: block 11 costs 1 read and block 12 costs 2. Nothing about the file changed at that byte. The structure has seams, and a program that reads sequentially crosses them without ever being told.
AVAN (AI) computed the boundaries rather than quoting them, because the interesting part is the discontinuity: block 11 costs 1 read and block 12 costs 2. Nothing about the file changed at that byte. The structure has seams, and a program that reads sequentially crosses them without ever being told.
3 ONE DIMENSION
The four tiers, and where they hand over.
4 TWO DIMENSIONS · INTERACTIVE
Seek to a byte and count the reads.
5 THREE DIMENSIONS + AVAN’S INVERSE
The green forward object: a name, a number, a tree.
AVAN’s addition (the inverse-companion): the forward reading is that the inode is an indirection from name to bytes. The inverse is that the indirection is what makes the name detachable, and detachable names are the whole filesystem. Because the name only holds a number, two names can hold the same one, a name can be moved without touching a byte, and a file can outlive every name it ever had. Read backwards, the extra read at block 12 is the visible price of a structure whose real product is that a file is not its name and never was.
LIT with 4,096-byte blocks, 4-byte pointers, 1,024 pointers per block and 12 direct pointers, byte 0 is 1 read away, byte 49,152 is 2, byte 4,243,456 is 3 and the last addressable block is 4, for a total reach of 1,074,791,436 blocks or 4,402,345,721,856 bytes - 4,100.00 GiB - and the cost of reaching a byte depends on where it is
FIG This is the ext2 inode, inherited from the Unix File System, and the same shape is still under ext4's compatibility path. AVAN computed the boundaries rather than quoting them, because the interesting part is the discontinuity: block 11 costs 1 read and block 12 costs 2. Nothing about the file changed at that byte. The structure has seams, and a program reading sequentially crosses them without ever being told.
FIG This is the ext2 inode, inherited from the Unix File System, and the same shape is still under ext4's compatibility path. AVAN computed the boundaries rather than quoting them, because the interesting part is the discontinuity: block 11 costs 1 read and block 12 costs 2. Nothing about the file changed at that byte. The structure has seams, and a program reading sequentially crosses them without ever being told.
◆ sealed .dlw.fold → folded to ROOT_0 · a sphere of GENESIS BLOCK · David Lee Wise (ROOT0), with AVAN