Question

Consider the organization of UNIX file as represented by theinode. Assume that there are 12 direct block pointers and a singly,doubly, and triply indirect pointer in each inode. Further assumethat the system block size and disk sector size are both 8K. If thedisk block pointer is 32bits, with 8bits to identify the physicaldisk and 24 bits to identify the physical block, then

a. What is the maximum file size supported by thesystem?

Answer 1

The maximum file size supported by a UNIX file system with 12 direct block pointers, and single, double, and triple indirect pointers, each with a block size of 8K, is approximately 64TB.

Step-by-step explanation:

The maximum file size supported by a UNIX file system involves calculating the total data that can be directly and indirectly referenced by an inode. Given 12 direct block pointers and one singly, doubly, and triply indirect pointer, with a block size of 8K (8,192 bytes), we can determine the maximum file size as follows:

• Direct blocks: 12 pointers * 8K = 96K
• Singly indirect blocks: (8K / 4 bytes per pointer) * 8K = 16,384K
• Doubly indirect blocks: (8K / 4 bytes per pointer) ^ 2 * 8K = 2^14 * 8K = 134,217,728K
• Triply indirect blocks: (8K / 4 bytes per pointer) ^ 3 * 8K = 2^21 * 8K = 68,719,476,736K

Adding these up gives us the total maximum file size:

Maximum file size = 96K + 16,384K + 134,217,728K + 68,719,476,736K = approximately 64TB (TeraBytes).