Tim:
I was under the impression that the directory structure was recorded in manner that's different from how the files are stored.
Mike McCarty:
You may know something that I do not. I thought everything was inodes.
David L. Gehrt:
If you look in the Linux header files you can see the structure of a directory entry in a directory. A directory is a structured file but one treated differently by the OS because the directory bit is set in its inode. But like other files, in some sense, it is just bits on the platter, albeit with some structure, as such a directory IS subject to possible fragmentation.
I was thinking of the following, though I may be mixing up this file system with another type: The directory structure being stored some distance away from the files, so that one doesn't tend to fragment the other.
It's been a long time since I read about the nitty-gritty of filing systems, it's not the sort of thing I do for fun. ;-\ It tends to be the sort of thing you read as you're diagnosing some condition (somewhere along the line, someone explains how it works behind the scenes).