Method and system for computer file management, including file migration, special handling, and associating extended attributes with files
First Claim
1. A file management system, comprising,a layer that intercepts at least one code path by which a program requests access to a first file from an underlying file system;
- a file management procedure that performs special handling on a file;
a branch in said layer that branches to a first call in said layer to said file management procedure based on a decision made by examining at least one normal attribute of the file referenced in the intercepted access request by examining the file itself;
a second call in said layer to said accessing procedure of said underlying file system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A file management system and method for implementing special handling of files, useful for such applications as migration, compression, encryption, and logging access to files. A layer is superimposed between an underlying file system and programs'"'"' requests to access files. The layer initiates special handling in response to a file'"'"'s normal attributes or information in the contents of the file and then passes the request to the underlying file system for normal proceeding. In the preferred embodiment, a file is recognized as a representation of a migrated file if the length attribute has a predetermined value and the file contains a unique pattern of bits.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A file management system, comprising,
a layer that intercepts at least one code path by which a program requests access to a first file from an underlying file system; -
a file management procedure that performs special handling on a file; a branch in said layer that branches to a first call in said layer to said file management procedure based on a decision made by examining at least one normal attribute of the file referenced in the intercepted access request by examining the file itself; a second call in said layer to said accessing procedure of said underlying file system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A file management method comprising the steps of,
intercepting at least one code path by which a program requests access to a first file from an underlying file system; -
examining at least one normal attribute of the file that is referenced by said request by examining the file itself; responding to said examining step by conditionally calling a file management procedure; calling said accessing procedure of said underlying file system. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A file migration method comprising the steps of,
examining at least one normal attribute of a first file by examining the file itself; - and
responding to said examining step by calling a file reloading procedure only if each of said at least one normal attributes has a predetermined value; wherein said file reloading procedure uses information stored in the first file to reload a migrated file corresponding to the file. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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21. A file management system comprising:
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means for intercepting at least one code path by which a program requests access to a first file from an underlying file system; means for examining at least one normal attribute of the file that is referenced by said request by examining the file itself; means for responding to said examining step and for conditionally calling a file management procedure; means for calling said accessing procedure of said underlying file system.
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22. A system for storing and retrieving information, comprising:
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a computer having a first data storage repository and access to a second data storage repository; a file system accessible to said computer that includes a procedure for accessing files stored on said first repository; said computer further having a layer that intercepts calls to said file system'"'"'s procedure for accessing files; a first file stored on said second repository; and a second file stored on said first repository that has some of the attributes of said first file and at least one normal attribute of the file itself signifying that said second file contains information identifying the location of said first file. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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24. A method of migrating files, comprising the steps of:
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copying the contents of an original file from a first repository to a second repository and transforming said original file to an alternate representation comprising a file having a last data block of a predetermined size and including therein information identifying the location of said copy. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification