SHARING AND SYNCHRONIZING ELECTRONICALLY STORED FILES

• US 20130282785A1
• Filed: 04/23/2012
• Published: 10/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: BESEN, Adam, CHEONG, Hwi, DENEUI, Alexander, PAPE, Frank, VASISHTH, Himanshu
• Granted Patent: US 9,244,934 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1734 Details of monitoring file system events, e.g. by the use of hooks, filter drivers, logs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1844 Management specifically adapted to replicated file systems

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to architectures, methods and systems and structures that facilitate the sharing and synchronization of electronically stored files among and between cloud entities and a number of computers, systems, devices and/or users. One particular exemplary architectural aspect includes the serial processing and ordering of work items associated with file system changes such that correct parallel execution of the work items may proceed resulting in the synchronization of the cloud file system and the client computer file system.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for dispatching work items that effect the sharing and synchronization of electronically stored files between a client file system and a cloud file system comprising the steps of:

ordering the work items in a queue from oldest to newest;

sequentially examining from oldest to newest the queued work items and determining any dependencies for the particular work item under examination; and

dispatching the work item under examination to a worker thread for processing when no dependencies are determined for that work item else proceeding to the examination of the next work item in the queue;

wherein the relative order of the work items in the queue that are not dispatched is maintained.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the dependency determination step comprises the steps of:

comparing dependencies affected by the work item under examination with entries in a dependency map.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2 further comprising the step of:

setting dependencies in the dependency map for the dispatched work item.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3 further comprising the step of:

releasing dependencies in the dependency map for the dispatched work item upon completion of the dispatched work item by the worker thread.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4 wherein the entries in the dependency map include inodes of files undergoing synchronization.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 4 wherein the entries in the dependency map include resourceIDs of files undergoing synchronization and electronically stored in the cloud file system.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 4 wherein the entries in the dependency map include names of files undergoing synchronization.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the ordering, examining and dispatching of work items is performed concurrently with the processing of dispatched work items by one or more worker threads.

9. A computer implemented method of processing work items associated with the sharing and synchronization of electronically stored files between a client file system and a cloud file system comprising the steps of:

receiving a work item;

determining whether the received work item exhibits a dependency with a dispatched work item; and

dispatching the particular work item to a worker thread if no dependency exists;

wherein the dispatched received work item effects the sharing and synchronization of an electronically stored file between the client file system and the cloud file system.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 9 further comprising the step of:

enqueueing the received work item in a work queue ordered from oldest to newest.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 9 wherein the dependency determination step comprises the steps of:

comparing dependencies affected by the received work item with entries in a dependency map.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 11 further comprising the step of:

setting dependencies in the dependency map for the dispatched work item.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12 further comprising the step of:

releasing dependencies in the dependency map for the dispatched work item upon completion of the dispatched work item by the worker thread.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 13 wherein the entries in the dependency map include inodes of electronically stored files undergoing synchronization.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 13 wherein the entries in the dependency map include resourceIDs of files electronically stored in the cloud file system undergoing synchronization.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 13 wherein the entries in the dependency map include names of electronically stored files undergoing synchronization.

17. A computer storage medium having computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

ordering the work items in a queue from oldest to newest;

sequentially examining from oldest to newest the queued work items and determining any dependencies for the particular work item under examination; and

dispatching the work item under examination to a worker thread for processing when no dependencies are determined for that work item else proceeding to the examination of the next work item in the queue;

wherein the relative order of the work items in the queue that are not dispatched is maintained; and

wherein the dispatched work item effects the sharing and synchronization of an electronically stored file between a client file system and a cloud file system.

18. The computer storage medium of claim 17 which further causes the computer to perform the following operation comprising:

comparing a current state of the Cloud file system to a graph such that any changes to files in the Cloud file system are determined

19. The computer storage medium of claim 18 which further causes the computer to perform the following operation comprising:

comparing dependencies affected by the work item under examination with entries in a dependency map.

20. The computer storage medium of claim 17 which further causes the computer to perform the following operations comprising:

setting dependencies in the dependency map for the dispatched work item and

releasing dependencies in the dependency map for the dispatched work item upon completion of the dispatched work item by the worker thread.