INTELLIGENT DISK SPACE MANAGER

• US 20150350323A1
• Filed: 09/29/2014
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: CHINN, Paul William, HANNON, Timothy P., BIRSE, Cameron S., MIRSA, Ronnie G.
• Granted Patent: US 10,230,796 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a technique for managing disk space in user devices. A disk space manager is configured to manage the disk space by requesting clients running on the user device to free up disk space. The clients receive the requests and respond to the requests by deleting their own data to free up the requested disk space.

Claims

1. A method for managing disk space in a user device, comprising:

determining a total target amount of disk space to be freed;

identifying one or more clients that are to be requested for disk space;

determining a portion of the total target amount that is to be requested from each of the one or more clients;

generating a deletion request for each of the one or more clients, wherein the deletion request includes a request to free up the portion of the total target amount; and

communicating the deletion request to each of the one or more clients.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said identifying one or more clients comprises identifying one or more clients that have not been recently requested to free up disk space.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said identifying one or more clients comprises identifying one or more clients that have not been recently run at the user device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said identifying one or more clients comprises identifying one or more clients that are not predicted to run in a near future.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a second deletion request for a particular client, wherein the second deletion request includes a request to delete one or more files in a cache directory of the particular client.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a second deletion request for a particular client, wherein the second deletion request includes a request to delete privacy data associated with the particular client.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said generating a deletion request for each of the one or more clients further comprising generating the deletion request at a first urgency level.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising receiving a response from each of the one or more clients indicating a first amount of disk space freed up by each of the one or more clients at the first urgency level.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

in response to a determination that the total target amount of disk space is not achieved;

generating a second deletion request for each of the one or more clients at a second urgency level, wherein the second deletion request includes a request to free up a second amount of disk space, wherein the second amount disk space is higher than the first amount of disk space.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a plurality of deletion requests for each of the one or more clients at a plurality of urgency levels.

11. A system for managing disk space in a user device, comprising:

a processor; and

a storage medium configured to store instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause a disk space manager to;

determine a total target amount of disk space to be freed;

identify one or more clients that are to be requested for disk space;

determine a portion of the total target amount that is to be requested from each of the one or more clients;

generate a deletion request for each of the one or more clients, wherein the deletion request includes a request to free up the portion of the total target amount; and

communicate the deletion request to each of the one or more clients.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor causes the disk space manager to identify one or more clients that have not been recently requested to free up disk space.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor causes the disk space manager to identify one or more clients that have not been recently run at the user device.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor causes the disk space manager to identify one or more clients that are not predicted to run in a near future.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the deletion request includes a request to delete one or more files in a cache directory of the one or more clients.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the deletion request includes a request to delete privacy data associated with the one or more clients.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the deletion request is generated at a first urgency level.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor causes the disk space manager to receive a response from each of the one or more clients indicating a first amount of disk space freed up by each of the one or more clients at the first urgency level.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein in response to a determination that the total target amount of disk space is not achieved, the processor causes the disk space manager to:

generate a second deletion request for each of the one or more clients at a second urgency level, wherein the second deletion request includes a request to free up a second amount of disk space, wherein the second amount disk space is higher than the first amount of disk space.

20. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium configured to store instructions that, when executed by a processor included in a user device, cause a disk space manager of the user device to manage disk space, by carrying out steps that include:

determining a total target amount of disk space to be freed;

identifying one or more clients that are to be requested for disk space;

determining a portion of the total target amount that is to be requested from each of the one or more clients;

generating a deletion request for each of the one or more clients, wherein the deletion request includes a request to free up the portion of the total target amount; and

communicating the deletion request to each of the one or more clients.