DOCUMENT TRACKING FOR SAFE SAVE OPERATIONS

• US 20150347440A1
• Filed: 09/30/2014
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Habouzit, Pierre, Giampaolo, Dominic B.
• Granted Patent: US 10,198,452 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/166 File name conversion
• 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 16/1847 specifically adapted to static storage, e.g. adapted to flash memory or SSD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1873 Versioning file systems, temporal file systems, e.g. file system supporting different historic versions of files

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed that track a document within a file system using document identifier (DOCID) that is preserved during safe save operations. The DOCID can be a universally unique identifier (UUID). The DOCID can be generated on a local file system or generated during a synchronization process with a remote synchronization service. Applications can opt in to document tracking. The kernel of the operating system can monitor file system operations on a per-application and per-thread basis and determine when a processing thread is about to perform a safe save. When a sequence of file system operations indicates that a safe save is to be performed, the kernel can generate and store a tombstone record that includes the DOCID and other metadata of the tracked document and pass the DOCID and metadata to the newly saved document.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of tracking a document within a file system, the method comprising:

monitoring, by a kernel, file system operations for the document;

determining, by the kernel, that the file system operations include a sequence of file system operations that indicate that a safe save process is being performed; and

saving, in response to the determining, metadata about the document, the metadata comprising a document identifier that is unique within the file system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the document identifier is unchanged by file system operations subsequent to the saving.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein saving metadata about the document comprises storing the document identifier in an inode of the file system.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the kernel, that an application that caused the sequence of file system operations to be generated has opted in to tracking the document within the file system; and

wherein the saving is performed in response to determining that the application has opted in to tracking the document within the file system.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining, by the kernel, the document identifier.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining, by the kernel, whether the document already has a document identifier; and

performing one of;

reusing, by the kernel, the document identifier in response to determining that the document already has a document identifier;

or

generating, by the kernel, the document identifier in response to determining that the document does not already have a document identifier.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the sequence of file system operations that indicate that a safe save process is being performed include:

generating a temporary file comprising the contents of the document;

saving the temporary file; and

performing at least one of;

renaming the temporary file over the document;

exchanging data between the temporary file and the document;

renaming the document to a temporary location;

renaming the document to a backup location;

or

unlinking the document from the file system.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium programmed with instructions that, when executed, perform a method, the method comprising:

monitoring, by a kernel, a sequence of file system operations for the document;

determining, by the kernel, that the sequence of file system operations includes a sequence of file system operations that indicate that a safe save process is being performed; and

saving, in response to the determining, metadata about the document, the metadata comprising a document identifier that is unique within the file system.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the document identifier is unchanged by file system operations subsequent to the saving.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein saving metadata about the document comprises storing the document identifier in an inode of the file system.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising:

determining, by the kernel, that an application that caused the sequence of file system operations to be generated has opted in to tracking the document within the file system; and

wherein the saving is performed in response to determining that the application has opted in to tracking the document within the file system.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising determining, by the kernel, the document identifier.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising:

determining, by the kernel, whether the document already has a document identifier; and

performing one of;

reusing, by the kernel, the document identifier in response to determining that the document already has a document identifier;

or

generating, by the kernel, the document identifier in response to determining that the document does not already have a document identifier.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the sequence of file system operations that indicate that a safe save process is being performed include:

generating a temporary file comprising the contents of the document;

saving the temporary file; and

performing at least one of;

renaming the temporary file over the document;

exchanging data between the temporary file and the document;

renaming the document to a temporary location;

renaming the document to a backup location;

or

unlinking the document from the file system.

15. A system comprising:

a processing system programmed with executable instructions that, when executed, perform a machine implemented method comprising;

monitoring, by a kernel, a sequence of file system operations for the document;

determining, by the kernel, that the sequence of file system operations includes a sequence of file system operations that indicate that a safe save process is being performed; and

saving, in response to the determining, metadata about the document, the metadata comprising a document identifier that is unique within the file system.

16. The system medium of claim 15, wherein the document identifier is unchanged by file system operations subsequent to the saving.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein saving metadata about the document comprises storing the document identifier in an inode of the file system.

18. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

determining, by the kernel, that an application that caused the sequence of file system operations to be generated has opted in to tracking the document within the file system; and

wherein the saving is performed in response to determining that the application has opted in to tracking the document within the file system.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising determining, by the kernel, the document identifier.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

determining, by the kernel, whether the document already has a document identifier; and

performing one of;

reusing, by the kernel, the document identifier in response to determining that the document already has a document identifier;

or

generating, by the kernel, the document identifier in response to determining that the document does not already have a document identifier.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein the sequence of file system operations that indicate that a safe save process is being performed include:

generating a temporary file comprising the contents of the document;

saving the temporary file; and

performing at least one of;

renaming the temporary file over the document;

exchanging data between the temporary file and the document;

renaming the document to a temporary location;

renaming the document to a backup location;

or

unlinking the document from the file system.