<table align="right"><tr valign="top"><td>[[Image:inode-number-1.png|thumb|right|300px|Each inode stores the attributes and disk block locations of the object's data.<br>(Image licensed under [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ cc])]]</td><td>[[Image:inode-number-2.png|thumb|right|360px|The '''inode number''' is like a '''finger-print''', and usually is considered to be '''unique''' for each file on the Unix / Linux file system.]]</td></tr></table>

The '''inode number''' is like a '''finger-print''', and usually is considered to be '''unique''' for each file on the Unix / Linux file system.<br>Referring to the diagram on the far right, issuing the '''ls''' command with the '''-i''' option<br>displays the inode number for each file. You can see that <u>each</u> file<br>(whether it is a directory or regular file) has its own unique inode number.

'''Advantages''' of hard links are that if one hard link remains (even if original file has been removed), the data in that hard linked file is NOT lost, a as well as hard links linked files will automatically change when a change be updated to that of the original file or hard links occur since they share the same '''i-node number'''<br>and therefore are considered to be the same file in the Unix/Linux OS treats them all as the same filesystem.

'''Disadvantages''' of hard links are that they take-up extra space,<br>you cannot hard link directory filesdirectories, and you cannot hard link files from other Unix/Linux servers<br>(since the inode number may already be used by the other Unix/Linux server).