directory entries - how to get a close look - Lilux-help

27 Apr 2004

Hi guys,
I'm currently preparing a course (for tomorrow, it's almost done).
In this course, I explain the classic UNIX filesystem (stuff like
inodes etc.).
Now, I'd like to show the students "live" what the directory entries
look like - they are files containing a table with the relation inode
number to filename.
IIRC it used to be that you could simply open such a file and look
at the raw contents (hexdump or whatever) - this though doesn't work
any more, if I try to open a directory directly with vi, cat, less,
hexdump, xxd, od, it doesn't work.
Does someone have an idea how I could get a close look at such a
directory entry? Maybe how to directly access an inode, without
going through the filename? [inode numbers can be had by using
ls -i, I'd have liked to directly look at the directory entry
itself].
I asked around the office, the usual suspects have as little ideas
as I do...
Greets & thanks in advance,
Eric