Kerry Baker wrote:
I need to know the actual procedure the file system uses to delete a file. That is, what files are modified (Inode table, SuperBlock, Group Descriptors etc) and which fields within the files are modified.
A file exists by itself, and directories contain pointers to files. Deleting a file is actually unlinking the directory entry from the file itself. In other words, if more than one directory has a name linked to the same file, "removing that file" won't remove the file, just the name in the directory (the link). See man 2 unlink, and man 2 link for better explanations.
Cheers, Carl.
