What is the super block in UNIX?

The file system of a system is described by a system block. Right at the beginning the super block is built when the file system is being created. The purpose of the super block is to contain the basic parameters of a system, for eg, the number of blocks and a count of the total number of files.

There are two superblocks:

- The default super block is always present at a fix offset from the beginning of the system`s disk partition.

- The redundant super block is not usually referenced unless the default superblock is effected by some error or system crash.

The file system consists of files. Some files may be categorized as directories which in itself contains the pointers to files that are themselves directories or files. Every file has a descriptor known as the inode. The inode describes the ownership information of a file.