In manyUNIX systems the inodes are kept at the start of the

In manyUNIX systems, the i-nodes are kept at the start of the disk. An alternative design is to allocate an i-node when a file is created and put the i-node at the start of the first block of the file. Discuss the pros and cons of this alternative.

Solution

Pros: No disk space is wasted on unused i-nodes and it\'s not possible to run out of i-node. Less disk
movement for small files is needed since the i-node and the initial data can be read in one operation.

Cons: file system integrity checks will be slower because of the need to read an entire block for each inode
and because i-nodes will be scattered all over the disk. Files whose size has been carefully
designed to fit the block size will no longer fit due to the i-node, messing up performance.