In a Unix-like file system, which structure stores metadata and pointers to data blocks?

• A. Master File Table
• B. Superblock
• C. Allocation table
• D. Inodes

Answer: (D)

In Unix-like file systems, the per-file information and the way to reach the file’s data are stored in an inode. The inode holds the file’s metadata—such as permissions, ownership, size, and timestamps—and it includes pointers to the actual disk blocks that contain the file’s data. These pointers can include direct block addresses for small files, plus indirect pointers that reference blocks containing further addresses, enabling access to larger files.

The other structures don’t serve this per-file role. A Master File Table is a Windows NTFS concept that records metadata for files in a centralized table. The superblock contains filesystem-wide information about the overall structure and health of the filesystem, not the metadata and data-block pointers for individual files. An allocation table (as in FAT) tracks which clusters are in use, rather than storing per-file metadata and direct data block pointers. Therefore, the inode is the structure that stores both metadata and data-block pointers for each file.