File system management

• US 10,303,652 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2016
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Giampaolo, Dominic B., Cisler, Pavel, Weiss, Eric A., McIntyre, Kristen A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Binh V
• Application Number:
  US15/203,712
• Publication Number:
  US 20160314135A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,056 Days
• Field of Search: 707821
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/16 File or folder operations, e.g. details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1794 Details of file format conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3213 using tickets or tokens, e.g. Kerberos network architectures or network communication protocols for entities authentication using tickets in a packet data network H04L63/0807

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for file system management. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a request at a kernel to perform a file operation on a particular file; identifying a flag bit associated with the file; invoking user space file handler to perform particular action when the flag bit is set; determining whether notification that action has been performed by file handler is received; and allowing the file operation on the file when notification is received.

Claims

1. A method, comprising, by a kernel of a computing device:

intercepting a first request to perform a first modification to a file;

in response to determining, based on a file attribute associated with the file,

that a time restriction associated with copying the file is inactive;

invoking a user space file handler to generate a copy of the file, and

in response to determining that the copy of the file has been generated by the user space file handler;

performing the first modification to the file;

intercepting a second request to perform a second modification to the file; and

in response to determining, based on the file attribute associated with the file, that the time restriction associated with copying the file is active;

performing the second modification to the file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the time restriction is active when at least one prior request to perform a modification to the file is received within a current periodic time span relative to a current time of day.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the time restriction is inactive when no prior requests to perform modifications to the file are received within the current periodic time span relative to the current time of day.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the current periodic time span is one hour.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the time restriction is inactive when a pre-defined number of requests to perform modifications to the file are received within a current periodic time span relative to a current time of day.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a third request to perform a third modification to the file;

determining that the third modification is associated with changing a name of the file but not a content of the file; and

performing the third modification to the file regardless of whether the time restriction is active or inactive.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the kernel analyzes the file attribute associated with the file in response to identifying that a flag bit associated with the file is set.

8. A computing device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to implement a kernel configured to;

intercept a first request to perform a first modification to a file;

in response to determining, based on a file attribute associated with the file, that a time restriction associated with copying the file is inactive;

invoke a user space file handler to generate a copy of the file, and

in response to determining that the copy of the file has been generated by the user space file handler;

perform the first modification to the file;

intercept a second request to perform a second modification to the file; and

in response to determining, based on the file attribute associated with the file, that the time restriction associated with copying the file is active;

perform the second modification to the file.

9. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the time restriction is active when at least one prior request to perform a modification to the file is received within a current periodic time span relative to a current time of day.

10. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the time restriction is inactive when no prior requests to perform modifications to the file are received within the current periodic time span relative to the current time of day.

11. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the current periodic time span is one hour.

12. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the time restriction is inactive when a pre-defined number of requests to perform modifications to the file are received within a current periodic time span relative to a current time of day.

13. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the kernel is further configured to:

receive a third request to perform a third modification to the file;

determine that the third modification is associated with changing a name of the file but not a content of the file; and

perform the third modification to the file regardless of whether the time restriction is active or inactive.

14. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the kernel analyzes the file attribute associated with the file in response to identifying that a flag bit associated with the file is set.

15. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor included in a computing device, cause the computing device to implement a kernel configured to:

intercept a first request to perform a first modification to a file;

in response to determining, based on a file attribute associated with the file, that a time restriction associated with copying the file is inactive;

invoke a user space file handler to generate a copy of the file, and

in response to determining that the copy of the file has been generated by the user space file handler;

perform the first modification to the file;

intercept a second request to perform a second modification to the file; and

in response to determining, based on the file attribute associated with the file, that the time restriction associated with copying the file is active;

perform the second modification to the file.

16. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the time restriction is active when at least one prior request to perform a modification to the file is received within a current periodic time span relative to a current time of day.

17. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the time restriction is inactive when no prior requests to perform modifications to the file are received within the current periodic time span relative to the current time of day.

18. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the time restriction is inactive when a pre-defined number of requests to perform modifications to the file are received within a current periodic time span relative to a current time of day.

19. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the kernel is further configured to:

receive a third request to perform a third modification to the file;

determine that the third modification is associated with changing a name of the file but not a content of the file; and

perform the third modification to the file regardless of whether the time restriction is active or inactive.

20. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the kernel analyzes the file attribute associated with the file in response to identifying that a flag bit associated with the file is set.