Deleting Inodes

Hi,

I've created a filesystem on a new partition and copied the /dev directory over using

Code:

cp -dpR /dev /mnt/dev

having previously created the directory

Code:

/mnt/dev

.

The thing is I only created 2000 inodes on the filesystem because I want to compress everything to fit on a floppy disk and it went way, way over. I had no idea that there were so many directores inside /dev so I want to go back and create them all manually (the one's I want).

But how do I delete the inodes. Googling found this:

http://www.linux-security.cn/ebooks/ulk3-html/0596005652/understandlk-CHP-18-SECT-6.html

Do I just do what that says and use clear_inode( ) for each inode or is there a quicker way?

Sorry about asking what I feel may be a noobish question but I'm just not entirely sure and can't get my head around it from searching.

Thanks very much,

Matt. I

 

You'll have to start over again, and make a new filesystem on that partition - this will erase any files/directories that you may already have copied to /mnt/dev.

BTW those functions that you mention are inside the linux kernel, they are not something a user invoke directly from the command line.

 

you shouldn't need to backup/restore /dev. linux should recreate the device nodes.

 

OK thanks very much and sorry for being a bit noobish!

So if I just use the mke2fs on /dev/sda10 (my hard disk partition) it should work?

Thanks again,

Matt. I

EDIT: Thanks - it worked. I thought those functions looked more like a C function than something you'd type in.

EDIT2: Yes, I'm not backing up: creating a boot disk of my own. Thanks again everybody!