Explain what an inode is in a file system and how it is used to store file metadata.

An inode is a data structure in Unix-like operating systems' file systems that stores metadata about a file but does not contain its content or name. The inode contains data such as:

• Access rights (read, write, execute)
• Owner and group
• File size
• Timestamps (creation, modification, access)
• Number of links to the file
• Pointers to data blocks where the file's content is stored

When the system accesses a file, it first finds its inode by name (via the directory), and then uses the information from the inode to access the content and manage the file. This allows efficient file management and supports links (hard links), as multiple names can point to the same inode.