Hi,

When I type :

# ls -l myFolder

I get the following output :

drwxr-xr-x 3 guest guest 4096 mar 7 15:44 myFolder

What does the number "3" stands for ?
If myFolder were a file it would be the number of physical links
linking to this file, but, for a folder I don't understand what it is.

Thanks for your help,

C=E9dric

redcic wrote:
> When I type :
> 
> # ls -l myFolder
> 
> I get the following output :
> 
> drwxr-xr-x 3 guest guest 4096 mar 7 15:44 myFolder
> 
> What does the number "3" stands for ?
> If myFolder were a file it would be the number of physical links
> linking to this file, but, for a folder I don't understand what it is.

It _is_ the number of physical links. You have the folder name 
(myFolder), the "." inside it (myFolder/.) and (at a guess) the ".." of 
a subfolder (myFolder/wibble/..), they all link to the same place.

Geoff

Geoff Winkless <usenet-at-geoff-dot-dj@[127.0.0.1]> writes:

> redcic wrote:
>> When I type :
>> # ls -l myFolder
>> I get the following output :
>> drwxr-xr-x 3 guest guest 4096 mar 7 15:44 myFolder

Are you sure? So you have a myFolder inside myFolder?

In order to get the info about the directory and not about the
contents of the directory, you need to do an "ls -ld myFolder".

>> What does the number "3" stands for ?
>> If myFolder were a file it would be the number of physical links
>> linking to this file, but, for a folder I don't understand what it is.
> 
> It _is_ the number of physical links. You have the folder name
> (myFolder), the "." inside it (myFolder/.) and (at a guess) the ".."
> of a subfolder (myFolder/wibble/..), they all link to the same place.

Actually, it means that the OP already has one directory inside his myFolder.

$ mkdir zz
$ ls -ld zz
drwxr-xr-x  2 vilmos vilmos 4096 2007-03-07 09:17 zz
$ mkdir zz/zz
$ ls -ld zz
drwxr-xr-x  3 vilmos vilmos 4096 2007-03-07 09:17 zz

Vilmos

On Mar 7, 9:30 am, "redcic" <cedric.lou...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> When I type :
>
> # ls -l myFolder
>
> I get the following output :
>
> drwxr-xr-x 3 guest guest 4096 mar 7 15:44 myFolder
>
> What does the number "3" stands for ?
> If myFolder were a file it would be the number of physical links
> linking to this file, but, for a folder I don't understand what it is.
>
> Thanks for your help,
>
> C=E9dric

It is called the number of "i-nodes". When a disk partition is
formatted an i-node table is created which limits the total number of
files that can live in that partition.

If you want to see the i-node number of each file, just type:

% ls -li

This is an interesting exercise:

% echo this is one file > original
% ln original clone
% ls -li original clone

both files have the same i-node number. Actually the two i-nodes point
to the same file. You may remove either 'original' or 'clone' and the
other one remains. Only when you remove the last i-node is the file
gone.

Windows doesn't have that. All they have is the crappy shortcuts.

-Ramon

Vilmos Soti wrote:

> Geoff Winkless <usenet-at-geoff-dot-dj@[127.0.0.1]> writes:
>> It _is_ the number of physical links. You have the folder name
>> (myFolder), the "." inside it (myFolder/.) and (at a guess) the ".."
>> of a subfolder (myFolder/wibble/..), they all link to the same place.
> 
> Actually, it means that the OP already has one directory inside his myFolder.

Isn't that what I said?

Geoff

Geoff Winkless <usenet-at-geoff-dot-dj@[127.0.0.1]> writes:

> Vilmos Soti wrote:
> 
>> Geoff Winkless <usenet-at-geoff-dot-dj@[127.0.0.1]> writes:
>>> It _is_ the number of physical links. You have the folder name
>>> (myFolder), the "." inside it (myFolder/.) and (at a guess) the ".."
>>> of a subfolder (myFolder/wibble/..), they all link to the same place.
>> Actually, it means that the OP already has one directory inside his
>> myFolder.
> 
> Isn't that what I said?

Yes, you are right. I didn't read carefully. I am sorry.

Vilmos