Monitoring document changes in a file system of documents with the document change information stored in a persistent log
First Claim
1. In a computer system having a file system of documents, wherein the file system stores document change information in a persistent log of records, a method of updating at least one other file of document information, comprising the steps of, receiving notification of an addition to the persistent log, reading a record from the persistent log, processing the record to obtain change information about a document and a sequence number representative of the position of the document change information relative to other document change information, updating the other file based on the change information of the document, and recording the sequence number of the record in a persistent storage.
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Abstract
A method and system for improved monitoring of document changes in a search engine by an indexing program. Once an indexing or other such monitoring program is halted, upon restart the monitoring program needs to update its own files and its indexes to reflect document changes that occurred while halted. A file system such as the Windows NT file system persistently logs document change information on disk in a monotonically increasing, uniquely-numbered persistent record, which further identifies the file that has changed. The method and system utilize the logged change information to efficiently maintain the indexes, and to rapidly update the indexes after a shutdown and subsequent restart.
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Citations
44 Claims
- 1. In a computer system having a file system of documents, wherein the file system stores document change information in a persistent log of records, a method of updating at least one other file of document information, comprising the steps of, receiving notification of an addition to the persistent log, reading a record from the persistent log, processing the record to obtain change information about a document and a sequence number representative of the position of the document change information relative to other document change information, updating the other file based on the change information of the document, and recording the sequence number of the record in a persistent storage.
- 14. In a computer system having a file system of documents, wherein the file system stores information about changed documents in a persistent log of records, and wherein each record contains a document identifier corresponding to the document, a system for updating at least one index which includes document properties, comprising, means for receiving a notification of a new record in the log, an interface for reading the new record from the persistent log, means for processing the record to obtain the document identifier and change information about the document corresponding thereto, and a search engine for updating the index based on the document identifier and the change information.
- 22. In a computer system having a file system of documents, wherein the file system stores document change information in a persistent log of records, a method of updating at least one index of document properties with document information, comprising the steps of, reading a record from the persistent log, processing the record to obtain change information about a document and a sequence number representative of the relative position of the record in the log file, updating the index based on the change information of the document by modifying the index based on a changed property of the document, and recording the sequence number of the record in a persistent data structure.
- 34. In a computer system having a source of changeable data wherein change information about changes to the changeable data are provided in a persistent log of records, a method of updating a data structure, comprising the steps of, receiving notification of a change to the persistent log, reading a record from the persistent log, processing the record to obtain data change information and a sequence number representative of the position of that change information relative to other change information, updating the data structure based on the change information of the document, and recording the sequence number of the record in a persistent storage.
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41. In a computer system having a file system of documents, wherein the file system stores document change information in a persistent log of records, a method of updating at least one index comprising document properties, comprising, reading a record from the persistent log, processing the record to obtain change information about a document and a sequence number representative of the position of the document change information relative to other document change information, updating the index based on the change information of the document by modifying the index based on a changed property of the document, and recording the sequence number of the record in a persistent storage.
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42. In a computer system having a file system of documents stored on a plurality of volumes, wherein the file system serially stores document change information in a plurality of persistent logs of records with each log corresponding to a volume, a method of updating at least one other file of document information, comprising, reading a record from one of the persistent logs, attaching a volume identifier to the record read, processing the record to obtain change information about a document and a sequence number representative of the position of the document change information relative to other document change information, updating the other file based on the change information of the document, and recording the sequence number of the record in a persistent storage.
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43. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps to update an index, wherein change information about changes to a source of changeable data are maintained in a persistent log, the steps comprising:
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reading a set of change information from the persistent log; processing the set of change information to obtain data change information and a sequence number representative of the position of the set of change information relative to other change information; updating the index based on the change information of the document, including obtaining a document identifier and the change information from the set that was read from the persistent data structure, providing the document identifier and the change information to a search engine for updating the index, and removing the set of change information from the persistent data storage; and recording the sequence number of the set in a persistent storage.
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44. In a computer system having a file system of documents, wherein the file system stores document change information in a persistent log of records, a method of updating at least one other file of document information, comprising, reading a record corresponding to a document from the persistent log, appending the record to a queue independent of whether the queue has another corresponding record queued for the document, processing the record to obtain change information about the document and a sequence number representative of the position of the document change information relative to other document change information, and updating the other file based on the change information of the document.
Specification