>2.  Inode '1' is historically used for bad blocks; numerous old dump tapes
>    assume that inode '2' is the first valid inode, so we are stuck with
>    it.

iirc, someone thought using it for bad blocks would be a good idea,
but then quickly discovered that the only bad blocks you can assign to
inode 1 are data blocks -- not inode blocks (which are unfortunately
not prohibited from going bad) -- so this turned out to be of limited
utility.

i seem to have gotten the idea from somewhere that white-out files use
"inode 1" (in much the same way that empty slots use "inode 0")
instead of an actual inode, but i have no idea where i heard that...

-- 
|-----< "CODE WARRIOR" >-----|
codewarrior@daemon.org             * "ah!  i see you have the internet
twofsonet@graffiti.com (Andrew Brown)                that goes *ping*!"
werdna@squooshy.com       * "information is power -- share the wealth."