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Data containerization for reducing unused space in a file system

  • US 7,739,312 B2
  • Filed: 04/27/2007
  • Issued: 06/15/2010
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2007
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A machine-readable storage medium including instructions that when executed by a machine perform a method, comprising:

  • receiving data to be stored in a file system, wherein the data comprises a plurality of data objects; and

    collectively data packing at least two of the plurality of data objects together in at least one block of a logical container in the file system, wherein the block is a fundamental unit of storage space of the file system, and wherein each block of the logical container comprises a plurality of extents to store data from at least one data object of the plurality of data objects, wherein the extent is a smaller unit of storage space than the block, wherein receiving the data to be stored comprises;

    receiving a first data object of the plurality of data objects to be stored in a first block of the logical container; and

    receiving a second data object of the plurality of data objects to be stored in the first block of the logical container, and wherein collectively data packing comprises;

    storing the first data object in a portion of the plurality of extents of the first block, wherein storing the first data object comprises storing the first data object in the portion of the plurality of extents of the first block as if the portion of the plurality of extents of the first block were a single container in the file system having a current block size that is smaller than the block size according to an internal block fragmentation of the file system; and

    storing the second data object in any remaining extents of the first block of the logical container that do not contain data of the first data object.

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