Understanding the Linux Kernel

17.2. Disk Data Structures

Figure 17-1. Layouts of an Ext2 partition and of an Ext2 block group

The first block in any Ext2 partition is never managed by the Ext2 filesystem, since it is reserved for the partition boot sector (see Appendix A). The rest of the Ext2 partition is split into block groups , each of which has the layout shown in Figure 17-1. As you will notice from the figure, some data structures must fit in exactly one block while others may require more than one block. All the block groups in the filesystem have the same size and are stored sequentially, so the kernel can derive the location of a block group in a disk simply from its integer index.

Block groups reduce file fragmentation, since the kernel tries to keep the data blocks belonging to a file in the same block group if possible. Each block in a block group contains one of the following pieces of information:

• A copy of the filesystem's superblock

• A copy of the group of block group descriptors

• A data block bitmap

• A group of inodes

• An inode bitmap

• A chunk of data belonging to a file; that is, a data block

If a block does not contain any meaningful information, it is said to be free.

As can be seen from Figure 17-1, both the superblock and the group descriptors are duplicated in each block group. Only the superblock and the group descriptors included in block group are used by the kernel, while the remaining ...