In the standard Linux Ext2 file system, a file is deleted when the inode internal link count reaches what value?

• A. 0
• B. 1
• C. 10
• D. 100

Answer: (A)

Ext2 uses a link count in the inode to track how many directory entries point to that inode. Each hard link increases the count; removing a directory entry decreases it. The file’s data blocks and the inode are freed only when this count reaches zero, meaning there are no remaining references to the file in the filesystem namespace. (If a process has the file open, the data may still be accessible through that handle, but it won’t be visible in the filesystem once the link count is zero.) Therefore, the file is deleted when the link count becomes zero.