Usage of filetype

Usage of filetype

[Hans-Joachim Baader]

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Hi,

in the tune2fs manual I found the ext2 option 'filetype'. A file type seems
to be an 8 bit number, defined in linux/dirent.h in struct dirent64.
However, I didn't find any further docs about it, and I don't know any
userspace tools to read/set it. Could anyone please point me to more info
(or explain if this feature has any use)?

Thanks,
hjb
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Re: Usage of filetype

[Andi Kleen]

Hans-Joachim Baader <hjb@pro-linux.de> writes:

> in the tune2fs manual I found the ext2 option 'filetype'. A file type seems
> to be an 8 bit number, defined in linux/dirent.h in struct dirent64.
> However, I didn't find any further docs about it, and I don't know any
> userspace tools to read/set it. Could anyone please point me to more info
> (or explain if this feature has any use)?

It sets the d_type field in struct dirent on readdir. See 
/usr/include/dirent.h in glibc for a list of the types. It's useful 
to find out something about a file without reading its inode
(=causing a slow seek of the hard disk). For example it can be used
to optimize find(1) or ls(1). 


-Andi