FILE SLACK LEVERAGING

• US 20180089216A1
• Filed: 09/29/2016
• Published: 03/29/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Boutnaru, Shlomi
• Granted Patent: US 10,909,077 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1727 Details of free space management performed by the file system saving storage space on storage systems G06F3/0608; management of blocks in storage devices G06F3/064
• 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 8/61 Installation

Abstract

A system and method for utilizing slack space as another file system. The system identifies available slack space caused by storing data on a drive. The slack space is then made available as part of a separate file system. The separate file system allows for dynamic cluster sizes as the cluster size depends on the slack space of each individual file. The available space for the file system also dynamically changes based on the change in slack space caused by new data files being stored on the drive, edits to data files on the drive, or deletion of data files.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a non-transitory memory storing instructions; and

one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read the instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations comprising;

determining a first cluster size used for a first operating system installation;

determining an available space on a cluster on a hardware memory device based on the cluster size and a size of data stored on the cluster for the first operating system installation; and

writing data for a second operating system installation on the available space.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise recording a memory address pointer indicating a location on the cluster where the data for the second operating system installation begins in a table.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first system installation and second operating system installation use the same file system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein writing data for the second operating system installation on the available space comprises determining that the cluster is shared between the first operating system installation and the second operating system installation.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first operating system installation has access to a first unshared cluster on the hardware memory device and the second operating system installation has access to a second unshared cluster on the hardware memory device.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the table is shared by the first operating system installation and the second operating system installation.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise changing an available size of the cluster to the first operating system installation in response to writing the data for the second operating system.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

determining a first cluster size used for a first operating system installation;

determining an available space on a cluster on a hardware memory device based on the cluster size and a size of data stored on the cluster for the first operating system installation; and

writing data for a second operating system installation on the available space.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise recording a memory address pointer indicating a location on the cluster where the data for the second operating system installation begins in a table.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the first system installation and second operating system installation use the same file system.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein writing data for the second operating system installation on the available space comprises determining that the cluster is shared between the first operating system installation and the second operating system installation.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the first operating system installation has access to a first unshared cluster on the hardware memory device and the second operating system installation has access to a second unshared cluster on the hardware memory device.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the table is shared by the first operating system installation and the second operating system installation.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise changing an available size of the cluster to the first operating system installation in response to writing the data for the second operating system.

15. A computer implemented method comprising:

determining a first cluster size used for a first operating system installation;

determining an available space on a cluster on a hardware memory device based on the cluster size and a size of data stored on the cluster for the first operating system installation; and

writing data for a second operating system installation on the available space.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise recording a memory address pointer indicating a location on the cluster where the data for the second operating system installation begins in a table.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the first system installation and second operating system installation use the same file system.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein writing data for the second operating system installation on the available space comprises determining that the cluster is shared between the first operating system installation and the second operating system installation.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the first operating system installation has access to a first unshared cluster on the hardware memory device and the second operating system installation has access to a second unshared cluster on the hardware memory device.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the table is shared by the first operating system installation and the second operating system installation.