Method and system for accessing a file using file names having different file name formats

• US 5,745,902 A
• Filed: 07/06/1992
• Issued: 04/28/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Miller, Thomas J., Kimura, Gary D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lintz, Paul R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALAM, HOSAIN T
• Application Number:
  US07/909,984
• Time in Patent Office: 2,122 Days
• Field of Search: 395/600, 395/700, 395/500, 395/650, 395/425, 364/DIG. 1, 707/200, 707/3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/166 File name conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1794 Details of file format conversion
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A multiple file name referencing system stores multiple file names in a file. These multiple file names include an operating system formatted file name and an application formatted file name. When an operating system formatted file name is created or renamed, the multiple file name referencing system automatically generates an application formatted file name having a potentially different format from, but preserving the extension of, the operating system formatted name. The multiple file name referencing system similarly generates an operating system formatted name upon creation or renaming of an application formatted name. A B-tree is provided which contains an operating system entry for the operating system formatted name and an application entry for the application formatted name, each entry containing the address of the same file to which both names refer. The multiple file name referencing system converts the operating system formatted file name to the application formatted file name by accessing the B-tree with reference to the operating system entry, and vice versa. As a result, either file name can be used to directly reference the file without requiring additional file name translation.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system for accessing a file using a tree structure, the computer system having a memory, the tree structure having a plurality of file entries, each file entry for storing a file name identifying a file and a file storage indicator indicating a location of the file in the memory, the file name being either a long file name in a long file name format or a short file name in a short file name format, the method comprising:

when creating a file,

receiving a long file name in a long file name format;

storing the received long file name in a first file entry of the tree structure along with a file storage indicator indicating the location of the file in the memory;

automatically generating a short file name in a short file name format; and

storing the generated short file name in a second file entry of the tree structure along with the file storage indicator indicating the location of the file in the memory, the second file entry being different from the first file entry; and

when accessing the file,

upon receiving the long file name,

locating the first file entry in the tree structure in which the received long file name is stored;

retrieving the file storage indicator stored in the located first file entry; and

accessing the file in the memory using the retrieved file storage indicator; and

upon receiving the short file name,

locating the second file entry in the tree structure in which the received short file name is stored;

retrieving the file storage indicator stored in the located second file entry; and

accessing the file in the memory using the retrieved file storage indicator.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically generating the short file name comprises deriving the short file name from the long file name.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically generating the short file name includes modifying the short file name upon a conflict with an existing file name.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after creating the file, retrieving the short file name when provided with the long file name.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein retrieving the short file name when provided with the long file name includes locating in the tree structure an entry containing the provided long file name, retrieving the file storage indicator in the located entry, locating in the tree structure another entry containing the retrieved file storage indicator, and retrieving the short file name from the located other entry.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after creating the file, retrieving the long file name when provided with the short file name.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein retrieving the long file name when provided with the short file name includes locating in the tree structure an entry containing the provided short file name, retrieving the file storage indicator in the located entry, locating in the tree structure another entry containing the retrieved file storage indicator, and retrieving the long file name from the located other entry.

8. A method in a computer system for accessing a file using a tree structure, the computer system having a memory, the tree structure having a plurality of file entries, each file entry for storing a file name identifying a file and a file storage indicator indicating a location of the file in the memory, the file name being either a long file name in a long file name format or a short file name in a short file name format, the method comprising:

when creating a file,

receiving a long file name in a long file name format;

storing the received long file name in a first file entry of the tree structure along with a file storage indicator indicating the location of the file in the memory;

automatically generating a short file name in a short file name format; and

storing the generated short file name in a second file entry of the tree structure along with the file storage indicator indicating the location of the file in the memory, the second file entry being different from the first file entry, whereby the file can be accessed using either file name by locating in the tree structure the file entry corresponding to the file name.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein automatically generating the short file name comprises deriving the short file name from the long file name.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein automatically generating the short file name includes modifying the short file name upon a conflict with an existing file name.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising retrieving the short file name when provided with the long file name.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein retrieving the short file name when provided with the long file name includes locating in the tree structure an entry containing the provided long file name, retrieving the file storage indicator stored in the located entry, locating in the tree structure another entry containing the retrieved file storage indicator, and retrieving the short file name from the located other entry.

13. A method in a computer system for accessing a file using a tree structure, the computer system having a memory, the tree structure having a plurality of file entries, each file entry for storing a file name identifying a file and a file storage indicator indicating a location of the file in the memory, the tree structure including a long file name in a long file name format identifying the file to be accessed and a short file name in a short file name format identifying the file to be accessed, the method comprising:

upon receiving a request to access the file with a requested file name,

locating the file entry in the tree structure in which the requested file name is stored, wherein the requested file name can be either the short file name or the long file name;

retrieving the file storage indicator stored in the located file entry; and

accessing the file in the memory using the retrieved file storage indicator.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a request to retrieve the short file name when provided with the long file name; and

retrieving the requested short file name when provided with the long file name.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein retrieving the requested short file name when provided with the long file name includes locating in the tree structure an entry containing the provided long file name, retrieving the file storage indicator stored in the located entry, locating in the tree structure another entry containing the retrieved file storage indicator, and retrieving the requested short file name from the located other entry.

16. A computer system for accessing a file using a B-tree, the computer system having a memory, the B-tree having a plurality of file entries, each file entry for storing a file name identifying a file and a file storage indicator indicating a location of the file in the memory, the file name being either a long file name in a long file name format or a short file name in a short file name format, the computer system comprising:

means, when creating a file, for;

receiving a long file name in a long file name format;

storing the received long file name in a first file entry of the B-tree along with a file storage indicator indicating the location of the file in the memory;

automatically generating a short file name in a short file name format; and

storing the generated short file name in a second file entry of the B-tree along with the file storage indicator indicating the location of the file in the memory, the second file entry being different from the first file entry; and

means, when accessing the file, for;

upon receiving the long file name,

locating the first file entry in the B-tree in which the long file name is stored;

retrieving the file storage indicator stored in the located first file entry; and

accessing the file in the memory using the retrieved file storage indicator; and

upon receiving the short file name,

locating the second file entry in the B-tree in which the short file name is stored;

retrieving the file storage indicator stored in the located second file entry; and

accessing the file in the memory using the retrieved file storage indicator.

17. The computer system of claim 16, further comprising:

means for receiving a request to retrieve the short file name when provided with the long file name; and

in response to the received request, means for locating in the B-tree an entry containing the provided long file name;

means for retrieving the file storage indicator stored in the located entry;

means for locating in the B-tree another entry containing the retrieved file storage indicator; and

means for retrieving the requested short file name from the located other entry.

18. A computer storage medium containing instructions that cause a computer system to:

when creating a file,

receive a first file name in a first file name format;

store the received first file name in a first file entry of a file referencing system along with a file storage indicator indicating the location of the file in a memory, the file referencing system having a plurality of file entries, each file entry for storing a file name identifying a file and a file storage indicator;

automatically generate a second file name in a second file name format; and

store the generated second file name in a second file entry of the file referencing system along with the file storage indicator indicating the location of the file in the memory, the second file entry being different from the first file entry, whereby the file can be accessed using either file name by locating in the file referencing system the file entry corresponding to the file name.

19. The computer storage medium of claim 18 wherein the instructions that cause the computer system to automatically generate the second file name cause the computer system to automatically generate the second file name based on the first file name.

20. The computer storage medium of claim 19 wherein the instructions that cause the computer system to automatically generate the second file name based on the first file name cause the computer system to modify the second file name upon a conflict with an existing file name.

21. The computer storage medium of claim 18 wherein, after the instructions cause the computer system to store the generated second file name, the instructions cause the computer system to:

receive a request to access a file, the request providing a file name; and

in response to the received request,

when the provided file name is the first file name,

locate the file entry in the file referencing system in which the first file name is stored;

retrieve the file storage indicator stored in the located file entry; and

access the file in the memory using the retrieved file storage indicator; and

when the provided file name is the second file name,

locate the file entry in the file referencing system in which the second file name is stored;

retrieve the file storage indicator stored in the located file entry; and

access the file in the memory using the retrieved file storage indicator.

22. The computer storage medium of claim 18 wherein, after the instructions cause the computer system to store the generated second file name, the instructions cause the computer system to:

receive a request to retrieve the second file name when provided with the first file name; and

in response to the received request,

locate in the file referencing system an entry containing the provided first file name;

retrieve the file storage indicator stored in the located entry;

locate in the file referencing system another entry containing the retrieved file storage indicator; and

retrieve the requested second file name from the located other entry.

23. A computer storage medium containing instructions that cause a computer system to:

upon receiving a first file name,

locate a file entry in a file referencing system in which the first file name is stored, the file referencing system having a plurality of file entries, each file entry for storing a file name identifying a file and a file storage indicator indicating a location of the file, the file referencing system including a first file name in a first file name format identifying the file to be accessed and a second file name in a second file name format identifying the file to be accessed;

retrieve the file storage indicator stored in the located file entry; and

access the file in the memory using the retrieved file storage indicator; and

upon receiving a second file name,

locate the file entry in the file referencing system in which the second file name is stored;

retrieve the file storage indicator stored in the located file entry; and

access the file in the memory using the retrieved file storage indicator.

24. The computer storage medium of claim 23 wherein the instructions cause the computer system to:

receive a request to retrieve the second file name when provided with the first file name; and

in response to the received request,

locate in the file referencing system an entry containing the provided first file name;

retrieve the file storage indicator stored in the located entry;

locate in the file referencing system another entry containing the retrieved file storage indicator; and

retrieve the requested second file name from the located other entry.