Merging file system directories

• US 8,280,908 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Issued: 10/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Khalidi, Yousef A., Smith, Frederick J. IV, Talluri, Madhusudhan
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, THU N
• Application Number:
  US11/479,192
• Publication Number:
  US 20080005133A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,286 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/791
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/192 Implementing virtual folder structures

Abstract

Two or more separate physical file system directories are presented as one merged (virtual) file system directory to a process running in a silo. The operating system controls the level of access to the files in the merge directory. The operating system provides the merged view of the file system directories by monitoring file system requests made by processes in silos on a computer or computer system and in response to detecting certain types of file system access requests, provides the view of the seemingly merged directories by performing special processing. The types of requests which trigger the special processing include: enumeration, open, create, rename or close.

Claims

1. A system for controlling file sharing and file access, comprising:

a computing processor; and

computing memory communicatively coupled with said computing processor, the computing memory comprising instructions executable by said computing processor, the instructions adapted for providing an operating system that;

associates a plurality of processes with a first silo defined in the operating system and provides a first silo-specific view of a first plurality of file system directories for processes running in the first silo, and

associates a plurality of processes with a second silo defined in the operating system and provides a second silo-specific view of a second plurality of file system directories for processes running in the second silo,

wherein the operating system comprises a filter driver, the filter driver in response to detecting a request by a process for a name for a file existing in one of the first plurality of file system directories defined for the first silo-specific view and existing in one of the second plurality of file system directories defined for the second silo-specific view;

determines whether the process is running in either of the first silo defined in the operating system or the second silo defined in the operating system;

upon determining the process is running in neither the first silo nor the second silo, the filter driver retrieves a name for the file from the operating system and returns the name to the process, the name reflecting neither the first silo-specific view nor the second silo-specific view;

upon determining the process is running in the first silo, the filter driver retrieves a name for the file from the operating system, changes the name to reflect the first silo-specific view, and returns the changed file name to the process; and

upon determining the process is running in the second silo, the filter driver retrieves a name for the file from the operating system, changes the name to reflect the second silo-specific view, and returns the changed file name to the process;

wherein in response to determining that the file access request is an open file request, the filter driver;

determines whether the file request is an absolute open request comprising an absolute path name or a relative file request comprising a path name relative to an existing open file or directory;

determines whether the process making the file request is in a silo by examining a silo identifier in the request;

upon determining the process making the file request is in a silo,

re-writes the request to access a file in the silo;

retrieves the merged directory metadata for the silo;

searches a private portion of the silo for the requested file; and

upon determining the requested file is not in a private portion of the silo, searches a public portion of the silo; and

returns a handle to the requested file.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the second plurality of file system directories is associated with a rank.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the filter driver, in response to a request for a directory file having a name existing in one of the first plurality of file system directories and one of the second plurality of file system directories, determines a rank of the one of the first plurality of file system directories and a rank of the one of the second plurality of file system directories, and returns a directory file from either the first plurality of file system directories and the second plurality of file system directories depending upon the relative ranks.

4. The system of claim 1, the first silo includes a third silo nested within the first silo, wherein the first silo is a parent of the third silo and the silo is a child of the first silo.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the filter driver detects file system access requests via callbacks inserted in file request access processing paths, the callbacks having been previously registered with the filter driver.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the file system access requests include a file system access request comprising an open file request, an open directory request, a create file request, a create directory request, an enumerate file request, an enumerate directory request, a query file request, a query directory request, a rename file request, a rename directory request, a close file request or a close directory request.

7. A method implemented in a computing system for controlling file sharing and file access, the method comprising:

defining a first silo in an operating system, the first silo defining a first silo-specific view of a first plurality of file system directories for processes running in the first silo;

associating a plurality of processes with the first silo defined in an operating system;

defining a second silo in an operating system, the second silo defining a second silo-specific view of a second plurality of file system directories for processes running in the second silo, at least a portion of the second plurality of file system directories defined for the second silo-specific view being the same as the first plurality of file system directories defined for the first silo-specific view;

associating a plurality of processes with the second silo defined in the operating system; and

using a filter driver in the operating system to monitor processes executing in an operating system for receipt of a file access request,

wherein the filter driver in response to detecting a request by a process for a name for a file existing in one of the first plurality of file system directories defined for the first silo-specific view and existing in one of the second plurality of file system directories defined for the second silo-specific view;

determines whether the process is running in either of the first silo defined in the operating system or the second silo defined in the operating system;

upon determining the process is running in neither the first silo nor the second silo, the filter driver retrieves a name for the file from the operating system and returns the name to the process, the name reflecting neither the first silo-specific view nor the second silo-specific view;

upon determining the process is running in the first silo, the filter driver retrieves a name for the file from the operating system, changes the name to reflect the first silo-specific view, and returns the changed file name to the process; and

upon determining the process is running in the second silo, the filter driver retrieves a name for the file from the operating system, changes the name to reflect the second silo-specific view, and returns the changed file name to the process;

wherein in response to determining that the file access request is an open file request, the filter driver;

determines whether the file request is an absolute open request comprising an absolute path name or a relative file request comprising a path name relative to an existing open file or directory;

determines whether the process making the file request is in a silo by examining a silo identifier in the request;

upon determining the process making the file request is in a silo,

re-writes the request to access a file in the silo;

re-writes the merged directory medadata for the silo;

searches a private portion of the silo for the requested file; and

upon determining the requested file is not in a private portion of the silo, searches a public portion of the silo; and

returns a handle to the requested file.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein in response to receiving a directory view request, the filter driver selecting entries for inclusion in the view depending on a rank associated with each of the plurality of file system directories, wherein the rank is used as a tiebreaker when more than one entry in the directories is known by a particular name.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein in response to determining that the file access request is an enumerate file or enumerate directory operation, determining if metadata exists for a requested directory and if metadata exists identifying the requested directory is a merged directory and returning a view wherein the view comprises a list of entries in the first file directory and the second file directory.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein in response to determining that the file access request is a rename file or rename directory operation, translating a received silo-relative name to a physical name before passing to the operating system.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein in response to determining that the file access request is a close file or close directory operation, metadata associated with the file or directory is deleted.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein access of the process to entries in the first file directory is restricted to read-only access via creation of the view.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein access of the process to entries in the second file directory is read-write access.

14. A computer-readable storage device, other than a signal, having program code stored thereon that, when executed by a computing environment, causes the computing environment to:

associate a plurality of processes with a first silo, the first silo defining a first specific view of a first plurality of file system directories for processes running in the first silo;

associate a plurality of processes with a second silo, the second silo defining a second silo-specific view of a second plurality of file system directories for processes running in the second silo, at least a portion of the second plurality of file system directories defined for the second silo-specific view being the same as the first plurality of file system directories defined for the first silo-specific view;

use a filter driver of an operating system to monitor processes running in the second_silo, wherein the filter driver detects a file access request made by a process running in the second silo, the operating system determining the process is in the second silo using a silo identifier with which the process is tagged;

a filter driver in the operating system monitoring processes executing in an operating system for receipt of a file access request;

wherein the filter driver in response to detecting a request by a process for a name for a file existing in one of the first plurality of file system directories defined for the first silo-specific view and existing in one of the second plurality of file system directories defined for the second silo-specific view;

determines whether the process is running in either of the first silo defined in the operating system or the second silo defined in the operating system;

upon determining the process is running in neither the first silo nor the second silo, the filter driver retrieves a name for the file from the operating system and returns the name to the process, the name reflecting neither the first silo-specific view nor the second silo-specific view;

upon determining the process is running in the first silo, the filter driver retrieves a name for the file from the operating system, changes the name to reflect the first silo-specific view, the name of the file reflecting a directory specific to the first silo; and

upon determining the process is running in the second silo, the filter driver retrieves a name for the file from the operating system, changes the name to reflect the second silo-specific view, the name of the file reflecting a directory specific to the second silo;

wherein in response to determining that the file access request is an open file request, the filter driver;

determines whether the file request is an absolute open request comprising an absolute path name or a relative file request comprising a path name relative to an existing open file or directory;

determines whether the process making the file request is in a silo by examining a silo identifier in the request;

upon determining the process making the file request is in a silo,

re-writes the request to access a file in the silo;

re-writes the merged directory metadata for the silo;

searches a private portion of the silo for the requested file; and

upon determining the requested file is not in a private portion of the silo, searches a public portion of the silo; and

returnes a handle to the requested file.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, having further program code stored thereon, that when executed by the computing environment, causes the computing environment to:

associate metadata with the second view of the plurality of physical directories, wherein the second view comprises a first portion of the second view and a second portion of the second view, wherein the first portion of the second view comprises entries from a first file directory comprising a global shared directory and the second portion of the second view comprises entries from a second file directory comprising a silo-specific local unshared directory, wherein the metadata determines degree of access to the entries.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, having further program code stored thereon, that when executed by the computing environment, causes the computing environment to:

examine the local unshared directory first for an entry specified in the file access request when creating the view when the file access request is an open operation.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, having further program code stored thereon, that when executed by a computing environment, causes the computing environment to:

examine the global shared directory first for an entry specified in the file access request when creating the view when the file access request is a create operation.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, having further program code stored thereon, that when executed by the computing environment, causes the computing environment to:

enumerate entries comprising a union of the first file directory and the second file directory when the file access request is an enumeration operation.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, having further program code stored thereon, that when executed by the computing environment, causes the computing environment to:

update the name of the entry to reflect a resolvable name for a requestor, the requestor comprising a process inside a silo or a process outside the silo.