Performing an action in response to a file system event

• US 20060129584A1
• Filed: 12/15/2004
• Published: 06/15/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Sedlar, Eric, Tarachandani, Asha, Jain, Namit, Idicula, Sam, Murthy, Ravi, Agarwal, Nipun, Hoang, Thuvan
• Granted Patent: US 7,921,076 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

A method and apparatus for performing an action in response to a file system event is provided. According to one aspect, sets of “event listeners” are associated with a file hierarchy and/or the nodes thereof. Each event listener contains a set of “event handlers.” Each event handler corresponds to a separate type of event that may occur relative to the file hierarchy'"'"'s nodes. When an event is going to occur relative to the hierarchy or a node thereof, all event listeners that are associated with that hierarchy/node are inspected to determine whether those event listeners contain any event handlers that correspond to the event'"'"'s type. Those event handlers that correspond to the event'"'"'s type are placed in an ordered list of event handlers to be invoked. As the event handlers in the list are invoked, programmatic mechanisms that correspond to those event handlers are executed to perform customized user-specified actions.

Claims

1. A method of performing an action in response to a file system event, the method comprising:

in response to user input, storing (a) data that defines a specified condition and (b) data that associates the specified condition with the file system event;

detecting that the file system event has occurred or is going to occur relative to a node within a file system; and

in response to detecting that the file system event has occurred or is going to occur relative to the node, performing steps comprising;

determining whether any condition is associated with the file system event;

in response to determining that the specified condition is associated with the file system event, reading the data that defines the specified condition;

based on the data that defines the specified condition, determining whether the specified condition is satisfied;

in response to determining that the specified condition is satisfied, performing a specified action; and

in response to determining that the specified condition is not satisfied, refraining from performing the specified action.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the specified condition is satisfied is based on information that is not a target of any operation that caused or will cause the file system event.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the specified condition is satisfied comprises determining whether a specified condition that is associated with the specified action is satisfied.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

establishing an association between the specified condition and the specified action.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the specified action comprises performing a specified action that is associated with a specified node relative to which the file system event has occurred or is going to occur.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

establishing an association between the specified action and the specified node.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the specified condition is satisfied comprises determining whether a specified node exists within the file system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining whether the specified node exists within the file system comprises determining whether a node at a specified path in the file system exists.

28. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 1.

29. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 2.

30. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 3.

31. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 4.

32. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 5.

33. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 6.

34. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 7.

35. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 8.

9. A method of performing an action in response to a file system event, the method comprising:

detecting that the file system event is going to occur relative to a node within a file system; and

in response to detecting that the file system event is going to occur relative to the node, performing a first specified action prior to the occurrence of the file system event.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a database server manages the file system.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

performing a second specified action after the occurrence of the file system event.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first specified action is specified to be an action that is to be performed prior to the occurrence of the file system event, and wherein the second specified action is specified to be an action that is to be performed after the occurrence of the file system event.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein performing the first specified action comprises performing a specified action that is associated with a specified node relative to which the file system event is going to occur.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

establishing an association between the first specified action and the specified node.

36. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 9.

37. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 10.

38. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 11.

39. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 12.

40. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 13.

41. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 14.

15. A method of performing an action in response to a file system event, the method comprising:

determining whether a first set of specified events contains a particular event that has occurred or is going to occur relative to a node within a file system;

determining whether a second set of specified events contains the particular event, wherein the second set of specified events is located after the first set of specified events in an ordered list of sets of specified events;

in response to determining that the first set of specified events contains the particular event, performing a first specified action; and

in response to determining that the second set of specified events contains the particular event, performing a second specified action after the performing of the first specified action.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein performing the first specified action comprises performing a specified action that is associated with a specified node relative to which the particular event has occurred or is going to occur.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

establishing an association between the first specified action and the specified node.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein performing the first specified action comprises performing a specified action that is associated with the first set of specified events, and wherein performing the second specified action comprises performing a specified action that is associated with the second set of specified events.

42. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 15.

43. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 16.

44. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 17.

45. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 18.

19. A method of performing an action in response to a file system event, the method comprising:

detecting that an event has occurred or is going to occur relative to a node within a file system;

in response to detecting that the event has occurred or is going to occur relative to the node, determining two or more mechanisms that are associated with the event;

determining an invocation order according to which the two or more mechanisms are to be invoked relative to each other; and

invoking at least one of the two or more mechanisms according to the invocation order, wherein at least one of the two or more mechanisms changes the invocation order.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein at least one of the two or more mechanisms removes one or more mechanisms from the two or more mechanisms that are to be invoked.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

invoking at least one of the two or more mechanisms according to the invocation order after at least one of the two or more mechanisms has changed the invocation order.

46. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 19.

47. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 20.

48. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 21.

22. A method of performing an action in response to a file system event, the method comprising:

establishing an association between a specified event and a specified action;

detecting that the specified event has occurred or is going to occur relative to a node within a file system; and

in response to detecting that the specified event has occurred or is going to occur relative to the node, performing the specified action.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the specified event is an event that occurs when the node is locked.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the specified event is an event that occurs when the node is unlocked.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the specified event is an event that occurs when the node is dynamically generated.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the specified event is an event that occurs when a symbolic link to the node is established.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein the specified event is an event that occurs when a symbolic link to the node is destroyed.

49. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 22.

50. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 23.

51. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 24.

52. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 25.

53. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 26.

54. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 27.