Are inode limits by directory or by drive?

Question

Are the inode limits on Linux by subdirectory or by the entire file system? I use ububtu 64 bit server 9.10.

Can the inode limit be resolved by splitting files up into multiple sub directories if it's a directory limit?

Answer 1

Inodes are the *nix representation of disk files. They are identified by a number, not by the path where they are in the directory structure. So the limit is across the whole file system, regardless of which hard link(s) (file entry you see in a directory) point(s) to the inode.