What is the "/.vol" directory for?

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Chapters
00:00 What Is The &Quot;/.Vol&Quot; Directory For?
00:26 Accepted Answer Score 16
01:07 Thank you

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Full question
https://superuser.com/questions/163941/w...

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Tags
#macos #mac #path #logicaldrive

#avk47

ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 16

Per this page about invisible files on Mac OS X:

This pseudo-directory is used to access files by their ID number (aka inode number) rather than by name. For example, /.vol/234881034/105486 is file #105486 on volume #234881034.

You can find the volume id and inode using stat. An example, using /etc/hosts:

$ head -3 /etc/hosts
##
# Host Database
#

$ stat /etc/hosts
234881026 23347035 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0 1035 "Jul 15 10:11:35 2010" "May 30 20:55:10 2010" "May 30 20:55:11 2010" "May 30 20:47:32 2010" 4096 8 0 /etc/hosts

$ head -3 /.vol/234881026/23347035
##
# Host Database
#