"ls -i" may do a stat if you hand it an individual file, as in
"ls -id /usr", or "ls -i filename".  But if you do "ls -i dir" it
uses the inodes in the directory itself.

(Hint:  Try doing "trace ls -i /" and see what you find:
 You will find one lstat call on "/", one fstat call on the fd
 associated with the directory "/", and the rest will be getdents(2)
 calls -- which return struct dirents, which contain d_fileno which
 is the inode number in the directory.  Of *course* if you do "ls -i
 filename", it will use the inum in the stat(2) call.)



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