diff --git a/src/add-ons/kernel/file_systems/bfs/Inode.h b/src/add-ons/kernel/file_systems/bfs/Inode.h
index 692bbf3c08..2945063765 100644
--- a/src/add-ons/kernel/file_systems/bfs/Inode.h
+++ b/src/add-ons/kernel/file_systems/bfs/Inode.h
@@ -39,7 +39,9 @@ class AttributeIterator;
 enum inode_type {
 	S_DIRECTORY	= S_IFDIR,
 	S_FILE		= S_IFREG,
-	S_SYMLINK	= S_IFLNK
+	S_SYMLINK	= S_IFLNK,
+
+	S_REGULAR	= (S_DIRECTORY | S_FILE | S_SYMLINK),
 };
 
 
@@ -140,6 +142,9 @@ class Inode : public CachedBlock {
 		bool IsIndex() const { return (Mode() & (S_INDEX_DIR | 0777)) == S_INDEX_DIR; }
 			// that's a stupid check, but AFAIK the only possible method...
 
+		bool IsAttribute() const { return Mode() & S_ATTR; }
+		bool IsRegularNode() const { return (Mode() & (S_ATTR_DIR | S_INDEX_DIR | S_ATTR)) == 0; }
+			// a regular node in the standard namespace (i.e. not an index or attribute)
 		bool IsSymLink() const { return S_ISLNK(Mode()); }
 		bool HasUserAccessableStream() const { return S_ISREG(Mode()); }
 			// currently only files can be accessed with bfs_read()/bfs_write()