File management apparatus and method, program therefore, and recording medium

• US 7,882,161 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2006
• Issued: 02/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Date, Osamu, Yoshida, Haruo, Hirabayashi, Mitsuhiro, Ohno, Masayoshi, Kashiwagi, Shigeru
• Primary Examiner(s): Vital; Pierre M
• Assistant Examiner(s): OBISESAN, AUGUSTINE KUNLE
• Application Number:
  US11/359,399
• Publication Number:
  US 20060195486A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,804 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/823
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06

Abstract

The present invention provides a file management apparatus for managing files, recorded on a recording medium, on the basis of an index file including management information about the files, the apparatus including: a management status information holding unit for holding management status information indicative of a management status of the files in the index file; a recording status detecting unit for detecting a recording status of the files recorded on the recording medium; and an inconsistency detecting unit for detecting an inconsistency between the management status of the files in the index file and the recording status of the files recorded on the recording medium on the basis of the management status information and the recording status detected by the recording status detecting unit.

Claims

1. A file management apparatus for managing content files recorded on a recording medium, based on an index file including management information about the content files, the apparatus comprising:

management status information holding means for holding, in the index file, at least two management status information units indicative of a management status of the content files, the content files having been recorded in at least one directory on the recording medium, one of the at least two management status information units being a modification time checksum of the at least one directory;

recording status detecting means for detecting at least two recording statuses of the content files recorded on the recording medium, one of the at least two recording statuses including modification times of the content files in the at least one directory; and

inconsistency detecting means for detecting an inconsistency between the management information and a recording status of the content files based on the modification time checksum of the at least one directory held in the index file, which was read from the recording medium, and the modification times detected from a file system by the recording status detecting means and based on an other of the at least two management status information units and an other of the at least two recording statuses, wherein the other of the at least two management status information units is information indicating a number of the content files in the at least one directory, and the other of the at least two recording statuses is a total number of files in the at least one directory from the file system.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the management status information holding means holds management status information about the content files for every directory.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the management status information includes information regarding a number of the content files included in each of the at least one directory.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the management status information includes information regarding names of the content files included in each of the at least one directory.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the information regarding the names of the content files is a checksum for each of the at least one directory, the checksum being generated based on the names of the content files included in each of the at least one directory.

6. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the management status information includes information regarding a creation time of a most recently created of the content files in each of the at least one directory.

7. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the management status information includes information regarding a modification time of a last modified of the content files in each of the at least one directory.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the modification time checksum is generated based on modification times of the content files included in each of the at least one directory.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

management status information generating means for generating management status information from the management information.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the management status information generating means generates the management status information about the content files for every directory.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the management information is generated from the content files recorded on the recording medium.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the management status information is generated from the management information.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the management status information is generated from the management information included in the index file.

14. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the at least two management status information units includes information regarding a number of the content files managed in the index file or information regarding names of the content files.

15. A file management method, implemented by a file management apparatus for managing content files recorded on a recording medium, based on an index file including management information about the content files, the method comprising:

previously holding, in the index file, at least two management status information units indicative of a management status of the content files, the content files having been recorded in at least one directory on the recording medium, one of the at least two management status information units being a modification time checksum of the at least one directory;

detecting at least two recording statuses of the content files recorded on the recording medium, one of the at least two recording statuses including modification times of the content files in the at least one directory; and

detecting, using a processor of the file management apparatus, an inconsistency between the management information and a recording status of the content files based on the modification time checksum of the at least one directory held in the index file, which was read from the recording medium, and the modification times detected from a file system and based on an other of the at least two management status information units and an other of the at least two recording statuses, wherein the other of the at least two management status information units is information indicating a number of the content files in the at least one directory, and the other of the at least two recording statuses is a total number of files in the at least one directory from the file system.

16. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions which when executed by a computer causes the computer to implement a method for managing content files recorded on a recording medium, based on an index file including management information about the content files, the method comprising:

previously holding, in the index file, at least two management status information units indicative of a management status of each of the content files, the content files having been recorded in at least one directory on the recording medium, one of the at least two management status information units being a modification time checksum of the at least one directory;

detecting at least two recording statuses of the content files recorded on the recording medium, one of the at least two recording status including modification times of the content files in the at least one directory; and

detecting an inconsistency between the management information and a recording status of the content files based on the modification time checksum of the at least one directory held in the index file, which was read from the recording medium, and the modification times detected from a file system and based on an other of the at least two management status information units and an other of the at least two recording statuses, wherein the other of the at least two management status information units is information indicating a number of the content files in the at least one directory, and the other of the at least two recording statuses is a total number of files in the at least one directory from the file system.

17. A file management apparatus for managing content files recorded on a recording medium, based on an index file including management information about the content files, the apparatus comprising:

a management status information holding unit configured to hold, in the index file, at least two management status information units indicative of a management status of the content files, the content files having been recorded in at least one directory on the recording medium, one of the at least two management status information units being a modification time checksum of the at least one directory;

a recording status detecting unit configured to detect at least two recording statuses of the content files recorded on the recording medium one of the at least two recording statuses including modification times of the content files in the at least one directory; and

an inconsistency detecting unit configured to detect an inconsistency between the management information and a recording status of the content files based on the modification time checksum of the at least one directory held in the index file, which was read from the recording medium, and the modification times detected from a file system by the recording status detecting unit and based on an other of the at least two management status information units and an other of the at least two recording statuses, wherein the other of the at least two management status information units is information indicating a number of the content files in the at least one directory, and the other of the at least two recording statuses is a total number of files in the at least one directory from the file system.