Journaled file system i-nodes exist in a static form on disk and contain access information for the file as well as pointers to the real disk addresses of the file's data blocks. These parameters are given to the mkfs command at file system creation. When enough files have been created to use all the available i-nodes, no more files can be created, even if the file system has free space. These addresses point to the first 8 data blocks assigned to the file.
Indirect blocks are either single indirect or double indirect.
Disk i-nodes do not contain file or path name information. Directory entries are used to link file names to i-nodes. Any i-node can be linked to many file names by creating additional directory entries with the link or symlink subroutine. Files associated with devices are called special files. Links represent the file names associated with the i-node.