Solaris™ Internals: Core Kernel Components

13.2. The vnode

A vnode is a representation of a file in the Solaris kernel. The vnode is said to be objectlike because it is an encapsulation of a file's state and the methods that can be used to perform operations on that file. A vnode represents a file within a file system; the vnode hides the implementation of the file system it resides in and exposes file-system-independent data and methods for that file to the rest of the kernel.

A vnode object contains three important items (see Figure 13.2):

Figure 13.2. The Vnode Object

• File-system-independent data — Information about the vnode, such as the type of vnode (file, directory, character device, ...