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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+The Contents of inode.i_block
+------------------------------
+
+Depending on the type of file an inode describes, the 60 bytes of
+storage in ``inode.i_block`` can be used in different ways. In general,
+regular files and directories will use it for file block indexing
+information, and special files will use it for special purposes.
+
+Symbolic Links
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The target of a symbolic link will be stored in this field if the target
+string is less than 60 bytes long. Otherwise, either extents or block
+maps will be used to allocate data blocks to store the link target.
+
+Direct/Indirect Block Addressing
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+In ext2/3, file block numbers were mapped to logical block numbers by
+means of an (up to) three level 1-1 block map. To find the logical block
+that stores a particular file block, the code would navigate through
+this increasingly complicated structure. Notice that there is neither a
+magic number nor a checksum to provide any level of confidence that the
+block isn't full of garbage.
+
+.. ifconfig:: builder != 'latex'
+
+ .. include:: blockmap.rst
+
+.. ifconfig:: builder == 'latex'
+
+ [Table omitted because LaTeX doesn't support nested tables.]
+
+Note that with this block mapping scheme, it is necessary to fill out a
+lot of mapping data even for a large contiguous file! This inefficiency
+led to the creation of the extent mapping scheme, discussed below.
+
+Notice also that a file using this mapping scheme cannot be placed
+higher than 2^32 blocks.
+
+Extent Tree
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+In ext4, the file to logical block map has been replaced with an extent
+tree. Under the old scheme, allocating a contiguous run of 1,000 blocks
+requires an indirect block to map all 1,000 entries; with extents, the
+mapping is reduced to a single ``struct ext4_extent`` with
+``ee_len = 1000``. If flex_bg is enabled, it is possible to allocate
+very large files with a single extent, at a considerable reduction in
+metadata block use, and some improvement in disk efficiency. The inode
+must have the extents flag (0x80000) flag set for this feature to be in
+use.
+
+Extents are arranged as a tree. Each node of the tree begins with a
+``struct ext4_extent_header``. If the node is an interior node
+(``eh.eh_depth`` > 0), the header is followed by ``eh.eh_entries``
+instances of ``struct ext4_extent_idx``; each of these index entries
+points to a block containing more nodes in the extent tree. If the node
+is a leaf node (``eh.eh_depth == 0``), then the header is followed by
+``eh.eh_entries`` instances of ``struct ext4_extent``; these instances
+point to the file's data blocks. The root node of the extent tree is
+stored in ``inode.i_block``, which allows for the first four extents to
+be recorded without the use of extra metadata blocks.
+
+The extent tree header is recorded in ``struct ext4_extent_header``,
+which is 12 bytes long:
+
+.. list-table::
+ :widths: 8 8 24 40
+ :header-rows: 1
+
+ * - Offset
+ - Size
+ - Name
+ - Description
+ * - 0x0
+ - __le16
+ - eh_magic
+ - Magic number, 0xF30A.
+ * - 0x2
+ - __le16
+ - eh_entries
+ - Number of valid entries following the header.
+ * - 0x4
+ - __le16
+ - eh_max
+ - Maximum number of entries that could follow the header.
+ * - 0x6
+ - __le16
+ - eh_depth
+ - Depth of this extent node in the extent tree. 0 = this extent node
+ points to data blocks; otherwise, this extent node points to other
+ extent nodes. The extent tree can be at most 5 levels deep: a logical
+ block number can be at most ``2^32``, and the smallest ``n`` that
+ satisfies ``4*(((blocksize - 12)/12)^n) >= 2^32`` is 5.
+ * - 0x8
+ - __le32
+ - eh_generation
+ - Generation of the tree. (Used by Lustre, but not standard ext4).
+
+Internal nodes of the extent tree, also known as index nodes, are
+recorded as ``struct ext4_extent_idx``, and are 12 bytes long:
+
+.. list-table::
+ :widths: 8 8 24 40
+ :header-rows: 1
+
+ * - Offset
+ - Size
+ - Name
+ - Description
+ * - 0x0
+ - __le32
+ - ei_block
+ - This index node covers file blocks from 'block' onward.
+ * - 0x4
+ - __le32
+ - ei_leaf_lo
+ - Lower 32-bits of the block number of the extent node that is the next
+ level lower in the tree. The tree node pointed to can be either another
+ internal node or a leaf node, described below.
+ * - 0x8
+ - __le16
+ - ei_leaf_hi
+ - Upper 16-bits of the previous field.
+ * - 0xA
+ - __u16
+ - ei_unused
+ -
+
+Leaf nodes of the extent tree are recorded as ``struct ext4_extent``,
+and are also 12 bytes long:
+
+.. list-table::
+ :widths: 8 8 24 40
+ :header-rows: 1
+
+ * - Offset
+ - Size
+ - Name
+ - Description
+ * - 0x0
+ - __le32
+ - ee_block
+ - First file block number that this extent covers.
+ * - 0x4
+ - __le16
+ - ee_len
+ - Number of blocks covered by extent. If the value of this field is <=
+ 32768, the extent is initialized. If the value of the field is > 32768,
+ the extent is uninitialized and the actual extent length is ``ee_len`` -
+ 32768. Therefore, the maximum length of a initialized extent is 32768
+ blocks, and the maximum length of an uninitialized extent is 32767.
+ * - 0x6
+ - __le16
+ - ee_start_hi
+ - Upper 16-bits of the block number to which this extent points.
+ * - 0x8
+ - __le32
+ - ee_start_lo
+ - Lower 32-bits of the block number to which this extent points.
+
+Prior to the introduction of metadata checksums, the extent header +
+extent entries always left at least 4 bytes of unallocated space at the
+end of each extent tree data block (because (2^x % 12) >= 4). Therefore,
+the 32-bit checksum is inserted into this space. The 4 extents in the
+inode do not need checksumming, since the inode is already checksummed.
+The checksum is calculated against the FS UUID, the inode number, the
+inode generation, and the entire extent block leading up to (but not
+including) the checksum itself.
+
+``struct ext4_extent_tail`` is 4 bytes long:
+
+.. list-table::
+ :widths: 8 8 24 40
+ :header-rows: 1
+
+ * - Offset
+ - Size
+ - Name
+ - Description
+ * - 0x0
+ - __le32
+ - eb_checksum
+ - Checksum of the extent block, crc32c(uuid+inum+igeneration+extentblock)
+
+Inline Data
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+If the inline data feature is enabled for the filesystem and the flag is
+set for the inode, it is possible that the first 60 bytes of the file
+data are stored here.