METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OPTIMIZING FILE TABLE USAGE
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An operating system directed to using special properties of a common inter-process communications mechanism (IPC), namely UNIX domain socket-pairs or stream-pipes alternatively as a storage medium for file-descriptors of UNIX processes. When a file-descriptor is written into a socket-pair, and closed in the UNIX process, the file remains open, but occupies no space in the process'"'"' file-table. The file-descriptor may later be read out of the socket-pair to reestablish it in the file-table, and access it. This property is implemented in an IPC mechanism of UNIX operating system whereby a process such as a dispatcher may manage more connections and processes than its file-table size allow. This provides scalability improvements of the UNIX operating system.
30 Citations
35 Claims
-
1-26. -26. (canceled)
-
27. A method for manipulating a file descriptor stored in a file table entry of a file table, the method comprising:
-
transferring the file descriptor from the file table entry to an inter-process communications (IPC) mechanism, thereby preserving the file descriptor in the IPC mechanism while permitting availability of the unloaded file table entry for other uses; and transferring the file descriptor from the IPC mechanism to an available file table entry if access to the file descriptor is requested. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
-
-
28. A data processing system for manipulating a file descriptor stored in a file table entry of a file table, comprising:
-
a bus system; a storage device connected to the bus system, wherein the storage device includes a set of instructions; and a processing unit connected to the bus system, wherein the processing unit executes the set of instructions to transfer the file descriptor from the file table entry to an IPC mechanism, thereby preserving the file descriptor in the IPC mechanism while permitting availability of the unloaded file table entry for other uses; and
transfer the file descriptor from the IPC mechanism to an available file table entry if access to the file descriptor is requested.
-
-
29. A computer program product having a computer readable medium tangibly embodying computer executable code for for manipulating a file descriptor stored in a file table entry of a file table, the computer program product comprising:
-
code for transferring the file descriptor from the file table entry to the IPC mechanism, thereby preserving the file descriptor in the IPC mechanism while permitting availability of the unloaded file table entry for other uses; and code for transferring the file descriptor from the PC mechanism to an available file table entry if access to the file descriptor is requested.
-
Specification