2. Finding a file

• Once a filesystem is mounted, it is possible to access files on that filesystem.
• Two main steps here:
•      looking up the name to find what inode it points to
•      then accessing the inode.
• Every component which is looked up, whether it is a file or a directory, returns an inode number which uniquely identifies it, and by which its contents are accessed.6
• If the file turns out to be a symbolic link to another file, then the VFS starts over with the new name which is retrieved from the symbolic link. In order to prevent infinite recursion, there's a limit on the depth of symlinks; the kernel will only follow so many symlinks in a row before giving up.
• When the VFS and the filesystem together have resolved a name into an inode number, then the inode can be accessed.