[TUHS] inode - does it have a meaning?

[Warren Toomey via TUHS]

On Sat, Oct 04, 2025 at 01:38:00PM -0700, David Barto via TUHS wrote:
> In a blog post today I read:
> 
> 	In most modern file systems, those data structures are
> 	known as inodes, and their numbers are inode numbers,
> 	sometimes shortened to inodes. The term is thought
> 	to be a contraction of index node, which certainly
> 	makes sense, but is lost in the mists of time.

This is in the 197 CACM paper:

  A directory entry contains only a name for the associated file and
  a pointer to the file itself. This pointer is an integer called the
  i-number (for index number) of the file. When the file is accessed, its
  i-number is used as an index into a system table (the i-list) stored in
  a known part of the device on which the directory resides. The entry
  thereby found (the file’s i-node) contains the description of the file ...

But an earlier version of the paper has this:

  A directory entry contains only a name for the associated file and
  a pointer to the file itself. This pointer is an integer called the
  i-number (for identification number) of the file.

See https://github.com/DoctorWkt/unix_timesharing_paper/blob/master/filesystem.md

So you could argue that, at the time of this draft, the wording implies
"identification node" for i-node.

Cheers, Warren