[LI] getdents() endgames

[Vimal Mathew <vml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,
	I was fooling around with the getdents() system call and came across
the following:
   The d_off value in the dirent structure for the last entry in the directory list is a large constant. For ext2 filesystems, this value equals the block size of my filesytem (e2dump -s /dev/hdaxx), ie. 1024 in an RH5.2 install, and 4096 in an RH6.1 install. How do I access this value in a program I write (do I necessarily have to access my superblock, or is there a simpler way)? I tried going through /usr/src/linux/fs/ext2/dir.c for the readdir() function but I could'nt make head or tail of it.
   For an MSDOS formatted floppy (mounted either vfat or msdos), the last "dirent" entry has 7168 (14*512) as the d_off value. What is its significance?
   In a Minix floppy, there did not seem to be anything special to the d_off of the last entry.
   I need to be able to obtain this value(d_off) in a program without too many complications, and before scanning through any directory structures. The program is running as a kernel module (kern 2.2.13).

Thanks in advance,
--vml,
Model Engg. College, Cochin
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