FILE SYSTEM WITH PER-FILE SELECTABLE INTEGRITY

• US 20160140161A1
• Filed: 11/05/2015
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Tipton, William, Verma, Surendra, Miller, Thomas J., Cargille, Jonathan M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,594,798 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity

Abstract

A file system uses data integrity techniques that are a selectable attribute of a file system object. Some file system objects have integrity on for various accesses, while other file system objects do not. Different default settings can be provided for different file system objects. Such a setting for a file system object can be changed to and from having integrity on. Given a file system object with an attribute, the file system provides file system operations for which the data integrity operation used on the file system object depends on this attribute. Such operations include, but are not limited to, operations for changing the attribute, creating file system objects with such attributes, providing and changing default settings for such attributes, and writing data to and reading data from files, which use different data integrity techniques based on this attribute.

Claims

1. A computer with a file system for managing storage of and access to a plurality of file system objects on a storage device, comprising:

a storage medium storing data indicating whether integrity is applied to each of the file system objects, such that some of the file system objects can have integrity applied while other file system objects do not have integrity applied;

a memory and a processor, with computer program code stored in the memory that, when executed by the processor, configures the processor to respond to requests from applications to access file system objects on the storage medium, wherein access to one of the file system objects uses integrity if the data indicates that integrity is applied to that file system object, and access to that file system object does not use integrity if the data indicates that integrity is not applied to that file system object.

2. The computer of claim 1, wherein the data indicating whether integrity is applied comprises, for each file system object, an attribute indicating whether integrity is applied.

3. The computer of claim 1, wherein the requests include requests to create a file system object, and wherein, upon receipt of a request to create a file system object, the computer creates the file system object with data indicating whether integrity is applied according to a default value for the data.

4. The computer of claim 1, wherein the requests include requests to write data to a file system object, and wherein, upon receipt of a request to write data to a file system object, the computer writes data to the file system object according to the data indicating whether integrity is applied.

5. The computer of claim 1, wherein the requests include requests to read data from a file system object, and wherein, upon receipt of a request to read data from a file system object, the computer reads data from the file system object according to the data indicating whether integrity is applied.

6. The computer of claim 1, wherein the requests include requests to change whether integrity is applied to a file system object, and wherein, upon receipt of a request to change whether integrity is applied to a file system object, the computer changes the data indicating whether integrity is applied to the file system object.

7. The computer of claim 6, wherein the requests include requests to disable applying integrity to a file system object.

8. The computer of claim 6, wherein the requests include requests to enable applying integrity to a file system object.

9. A computer-implemented process, comprising:

receiving a request to access a file system object;

determining whether the file system object has integrity applied to it;

if the file system object has integrity applied, then using integrity based access to the file system object; and

if the file system object does not have integrity applied, then using another form of access for the file system object.

10. The computer-implemented process of claim 9, wherein the data indicating whether integrity is applied comprises, for each file system object, an attribute indicating whether integrity is applied.

11. The computer-implemented process of claim 9, wherein the requests include requests to create a file system object, and wherein, upon receipt of a request to create a file system object, the computer creates the file system object with data indicating whether integrity is applied according to a default value for the data.

12. The computer-implemented process of claim 9, wherein the requests include requests to write data to a file system object, and wherein, upon receipt of a request to write data to a file system object, the computer writes data to the file system object according to the data indicating whether integrity is applied.

13. The computer-implemented process of claim 9, wherein the requests include requests to read data from a file system object, and wherein, upon receipt of a request to read data from a file system object, the computer reads data from the file system object according to the data indicating whether integrity is applied.

14. The computer-implemented process of claim 9, wherein the requests include requests to change whether integrity is applied to a file system object, and wherein, upon receipt of a request to change whether integrity is applied to a file system object, the computer changes the data indicating whether integrity is applied to the file system object.

15. The computer-implemented process of claim 14, wherein the requests include requests to disable applying integrity to a file system object.

16. The computer-implemented process of claim 14, wherein the requests include requests to enable applying integrity to a file system object.

17. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a storage medium, with computer program code stored in the memory that, when executed by the processor, configures the processor to;

store data indicating whether integrity is applied to each of the file system objects, such that some of the file system objects can have integrity applied while other file system objects do not have integrity applied; and

respond to requests from applications to access file system objects on the storage medium, wherein access to one of the file system objects uses integrity if the data indicates that integrity is applied to that file system object, and access to that file system object does not use integrity if the data indicates that integrity is not applied to that file system object.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the data indicating whether integrity is applied comprises, for each file system object, an attribute indicating whether integrity is applied.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the requests include requests to create a file system object, and wherein, upon receipt of a request to create a file system object, the computer creates the file system object with data indicating whether integrity is applied according to a default value for the data.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the requests include requests to write data to a file system object, and wherein, upon receipt of a request to write data to a file system object, the computer writes data to the file system object according to the data indicating whether integrity is applied.