RESTORING A DIRECTORY TO A STATE PRIOR TO A PAST SYNCHRONIZATION EVENT

• US 20200133782A1
• Filed: 12/18/2018
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2018
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Ramabhadran, Pranav Vishnu, Park, Ken, O'Haire, Wes, Nayar, Raveesh, Lu, Helen, Mathews, Grant, Keller, Sam, Nordlof, Niklas, Oman, Marian, Weingardt, Julia
• Application Number:
  US16/223,697
• Publication Number:
  US 20200133782A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1815 Journaling file systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

The present technology pertains to restoring a directory to a state prior to a past synchronization event. A content management system can present an interface including history of synchronization events for a directory, and a user can select to restore a directory to a state prior to any one of the past synchronization events.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed by a computing system being effective to cause the computing system to:

receive a request to restore a directory to a prior state;

read a list of synchronization events from a server file journal that have occurred in the directory subsequent to the prior state;

determine an end state of the directory after it has been restored to the prior state;

plan synchronization actions necessary to return the directory to the prior state; and

execute the synchronization actions necessary to return the directory to the prior state.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the computing system to:

after the synchronization actions necessary to restore the directory to the prior state, synchronize the restored directory on a content management system with a client device.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2, wherein the directory is a shared directory that is synchronized among a client device associated with a user account of the content management system, a second client device associated with a second user account of the content management system, and the content management system.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the shared directory existed prior to the first user account gaining access to the shared directory.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 4, wherein the list of synchronization events for the shared directory are displayed in reverse chronological order, ending at the first synchronization event after the first user account gained access permission to the shared directory.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the restoration of the shared directory to the prior state does not alter an access control list for the shared directory, wherein the access control list has been modified subsequent to the prior state.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein subsequent to the prior state the first user account gained access to a shared subdirectory that is subordinate to the shared directory, wherein the instructions cause the computing system to:

during the restoration of the directory to the prior state, unmount the shared subdirectory so the shared subdirectory does not appear in the directory, but the first user account still has access to the shared subdirectory.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the instructions cause the computing system to:

send a notification that the directory is being returned to the prior state to the at least the second account.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to execute the synchronization actions include instructions to:

perform a subset of the synchronization actions;

after the performance of the subset of the synchronization actions plan additional synchronization actions necessary to return the directory to the prior state; and

recursively perform a subset of the additional synchronization actions, and plan additional synchronization actions until the directory has been returned to the prior state.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the computing system to:

record the executed synchronization actions in the server file journal.

11. A method comprising:

receiving a request to restore a directory to a prior state;

reading a list of synchronization events from a server file journal that have occurred in the directory subsequent to the prior state;

determining an end state of the directory after it has been restored to the prior state;

planning synchronization actions necessary to return the directory to the prior state; and

executing the synchronization actions necessary to return the directory to the prior state.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the directory is a shared directory that is synchronized among a client device associated with a user account of the content management system, a second client device associated with a second user account of the content management system, and the content management system.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the restoration of the shared directory to the prior state does not alter an access control list for the shared directory, wherein the access control list has been modified subsequent to the prior state.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein subsequent to the directory being in the prior state the first user account gained access to a shared subdirectory that is subordinate to the shared directory, the method comprising:

during the restoration of the directory to the prior state, unmounting the shared subdirectory so the shared subdirectory does not appear in the directory, but the first user account still has access to the shared subdirectory.

15. The method of claim 11, comprising:

performing a subset of the synchronization actions;

after the performance of the subset of the synchronization actions planning additional synchronization actions necessary to return the directory to the prior state; and

recursively performing a subset of the additional synchronization actions, and plan additional synchronization actions until the directory has been returned to the prior state.

16. The method of claim 11, comprising:

recording the executed synchronization actions in the server file journal.

17. A system comprising:

at least one non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions stored thereon;

at least one processor, the processor configured to execute the instructions which cause the at least one processor to;

receive a request to restore a directory to a prior state;

read a list of synchronization events from a server file journal that have occurred in the directory subsequent to the prior state;

determine an end state of the directory after it has been restored to the prior state;

plan synchronization actions necessary to return the directory to the prior state; and

execute the synchronization actions necessary to restore the directory to the prior state.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the restoration of the shared directory to the prior state does not alter an access control list for the shared directory, wherein the access control list has been modified subsequent to the directory being in the prior state.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein subsequent to the directory being in the prior state a first user account gained access to a shared subdirectory that is subordinate to the shared directory, wherein the instructions cause the at least one processor to:

during the restoration of the directory to the prior state, unmount the shared subdirectory so the shared subdirectory does not appear in the directory, but the first user account still has access to the shared subdirectory.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the instructions cause the at least one processor to:

perform a subset of the synchronization actions;

after the performance of the subset of the synchronization actions plan additional synchronization actions necessary to return the directory to the prior state; and

recursively perform a subset of the additional synchronization actions, and plan additional synchronization actions until the directory has been returned to the prior state.