File system directory attribute correction

• US 8,903,874 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2012
• Issued: 12/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Open Invention Network LLC
• Original Assignee: OSR Open Systems Resources, Inc.
• Inventors: Mason, W. Anthony, Noone, Scott J., Widdowson, Roderick David Wolfe
• Primary Examiner(s): Mahmoudi, Tony
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mian, Umar
• Application Number:
  US13/668,033
• Publication Number:
  US 20130117293A1
• Time in Patent Office: 760 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/822
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/116 Details of conversion of file system types or formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/16 File or folder operations, e.g. details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems

Abstract

Various embodiments are directed to systems and methods for facilitating file attribute correction. A computer system may receive a request to enumerate a first directory stored on a data storage. For a first file in the first directory, the computer system may determine that the first file has a corresponding first entry in an attribute cache, determine that the first entry for the first file indicates native file attributes that match the first file, and return for the first file at least one logical attribute indicated by the first entry.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system comprising:

a computer system, the computer system comprising at least one processor and operatively associated data storage, wherein the data storage comprises a plurality of directories, wherein the data storage comprises an attribute cache, and wherein the computer system is programmed to;

execute a layered component, wherein the layered component is logically positioned between an operating system of the computer system and the data storage, and wherein the layered component is programmed to;

transform a first file in a manner that modifies file attributes of the first file;

receive a request to enumerate a first directory stored on the data storage, wherein the request is received from the operating system, wherein the first directory comprises at least a plurality of files comprising the first file;

for the first file;

determine that the first file has a corresponding first entry in the attribute cache; and

determine that the first entry for the first file indicates at least one first file native attribute and at least one first file logical attribute, wherein the at least one first file native attribute describes the first file after it is transformed and the at least one first file logical attribute describes the first file before it was transformed;

for a second file selected from the plurality of files;

determine that the second file does not have a corresponding entry in the attribute cache;

determine that at least one second file native attribute of the second file does not match at least one second file logical attribute of the second file;

derive the at least one second file logical attribute of the second file; and

generate a second entry in the attribute cache corresponding to the second file, wherein the second entry indicates native attribute values for the second file and the at least one derived second file logical attribute; and

return a response to the request, wherein the response comprises, for each of the plurality of files, at least one logical attribute describing the file, wherein the at least one logical attribute describing the first file comprises the at least one first file logical attribute, and wherein the at least one logical attribute describing the second file comprises the at least one second file logical attribute.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the layered component is further programmed to determine whether the first file is tagged to indicate that at least one first file native attribute does not match at least one first file logical attribute.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the layered component is further programmed to tag the second file to indicate that the at least one second file native attribute does not match the at least one second file logical attribute.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the tagging of the second file comprises at least one of:

renaming the second file with an algorithmically-determined name;

modifying a native size of the second file;

adding an alternate data stream to the second file;

modifying at least one time stamp of the second file.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the layered component is further programmed to, for a third file selected from the plurality of files:

determine that the third file does not have a corresponding entry in the attribute cache;

determine that the third file is tagged to indicate that at least one third file native attribute does not match at least one third file logical attribute;

derive the third file logical attribute for the third file;

generate a third entry in the attribute cache corresponding to the third file, wherein the third entry indicates native attribute values for the third file and the derived third file logical attribute; and

return for the third file at least the third file logical attribute.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the attribute cache is at least partially stored at a memory device of the data storage.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the attribute cache is at least partially stored at a persistent storage device of the data storage.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the attribute cache comprises a plurality of attribute cache files.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein each of the plurality of attribute cache files comprises entries for files in a first directory only.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the layered component is further programmed to:

select the first directory as a frequently enumerated directory; and

pre-populate the attribute cache for the first directory with entries for a plurality of files in the first directory.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one first file native attribute and the at least one first file logical attribute are selected from the group consisting of:

a file name, a file size, and a file timestamp.

20. The system of claim 3, wherein the tagging of the second file comprises changing an original name of the second file to an encrypted version of the original name of the second file.

21. The system of claim 3, wherein the tagging of the second file comprises modifying a native size of the second file.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein after the modifying the native size of the second file is divisible by a predetermined value.

23. The system of claim 3, wherein the tagging of the second file comprises adding an alternate data stream to the second file.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the layered component is further programmed to:

for a third file selected from the plurality of files;

determine that the third file has a corresponding third entry in the attribute cache;

determine that native file attributes indicated by the third entry do not match native file attributes of the third file;

in response to determining that the native file attributes indicated by the third entry do not match the native file attributes of the third file;

remove the third entry from the attribute cache;

derive at least one third logical file attribute for the third file; and

generate a third entry in the attribute cache corresponding to the third file, wherein the third entry indicates native attribute values for the third file and the at least one derived third file logical attribute; and

return for the third file at least the third logical file attribute.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the layered component is further programmed to:

generate a predicted usage frequency for the plurality of files;

for each of the plurality files that has a predicted usage frequency above a threshold, generate for the file a corresponding entry in the attribute cache.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the layered component comprises a file system filter driver.

11. A computer-implemented method comprising:

transforming, by a layered component executed by a computer system, a first file in a manner that modifies file attributes of the first file, wherein the computer system comprises at least one processor and operatively associated data storage, wherein the data storage comprises a plurality of directories, wherein the first directory comprises at least a plurality of files comprising the first file, wherein the data storage comprises an attribute cache, and wherein the layered component is logically positioned between an operating system of the computer system and the data storage;

receiving, by the layered component, a request to enumerate the first directory, wherein the request is received from the operating system;

for the first file in the first directory selected from the plurality of files, determining by the layered component that the first file has a corresponding first entry in the attribute cache;

for the first file in the file directory, determining by the layered component that the first entry for the first file indicates at least one first file native file attribute and at least one first file logical attribute, wherein the at least one first file native attribute describes the first file after it is transformed and the at least one first file logical attribute describes the first file before it was transformed;

determining that a second file selected from the plurality of files does not have a corresponding entry in the attribute cache;

determining that at least one second file native attribute of the second file does not match at least one second file logical attribute of the second file;

deriving the at least one second file logical attribute of the second file;

generating a second entry in the attribute cache corresponding to the second file, wherein the second entry indicates native attribute values for the second file and the at least one derived second file logical attribute; and

returning by the layered component a response to the request, wherein the response comprises, for each of the plurality of files, at least one logical attribute describing the file, wherein the at least one logical attribute describing the first file comprises the at least one first file logical attribute, and wherein the at least one logical attribute describing the second file comprises the at least one second file logical attribute.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining whether the first file is tagged to indicate that at least one first file native attribute does not match at least one first file logical attribute.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising tagging the second file to indicate that the at least one second file native attribute does not match the at least one second file logical attribute.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the tagging of the second file comprises at least one of:

renaming the second file with an algorithmically-determined name;

modifying a native size of the second file;

adding an alternate data stream to the second file;

modifying at least one time stamp of the second file.

27. The method of claim 11, wherein the layered component comprises a file system filter driver.

15. A computer-implemented system comprising:

a computer system, the computer system comprising at least one processor and operatively associated data storage, wherein the data storage comprises a plurality of directories, and wherein the computer system is programmed to;

execute a layered component, wherein the layered component is logically positioned between an operating system of the computer system and the data storage, and wherein the layered component is programmed to;

transform a first file in a manner that modifies file attributes of the first file;

receive a request to enumerate a first directory stored on the data storage, wherein the first directory comprises at least a plurality of files comprising the first file, and wherein the request is received from the operating system;

for the first file in the first directory;

determine that the first file is tagged to indicate that at least one first file native attribute does not match at least one first file logical attribute, wherein the at least one first file logical attribute describes the first file before it was transformed and the at least one first file native attribute describes the first file after it is transformed;

for a second file selected from the plurality of files;

determine that the second file does not have a corresponding entry in the attribute cache;

determine that at least one second file native attribute of the second file does not match at least one second file logical attribute of the second file;

derive the at least one second file logical attribute of the second file; and

generate a second entry in the attribute cache corresponding to the second file, wherein the second entry indicates native attribute values for the second file and the at least one derived second file logical attribute; and

derive the at least one first file logical attribute; and

return a response to the request, wherein the response comprises, for each of the plurality of files, at least one logical attribute describing the file, wherein the at least one logical attribute describing the first file comprises the at least one first file logical attribute, and wherein the at least one logical attribute describing the second file comprises the at least one second file logical attribute.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein deriving the at least one first file logical attribute comprises:

determining that the first file has a corresponding first entry in an attribute cache;

determining that the first entry for the first file indicates native file attributes that match the first file; and

retrieving from the first entry the at least one first logical attribute.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein deriving the at least one first file logical attribute further comprises performing at least one transformation on the first file.

18. A computer-implemented method comprising:

transforming, by a layered component executed by a computer system, a first file in a manner that modifies file attributes of the first file, wherein the computer system comprises at least one processor and operatively associated data storage, wherein the data storage comprises a plurality of directories, wherein the first directory comprises at least a plurality of files comprising the first file, wherein the data storage comprises an attribute cache, and wherein the layered component is logically positioned between an operating system of the computer system and the data storage;

receiving, by the layered component, a request to enumerate a first directory stored on a data storage, wherein the request is received from the operating system;

for a first file in the first directory;

determining, by the layered component, that the first file is tagged to indicate that at least one first file native attribute does not match at least one first file logical attribute, wherein the at least one first file logical attribute describes the first file before it was transformed and the at least one first file native attribute describe the first file after it is transformed; and

deriving, by the layered component, the at least one first file logical attribute;

for a second file selected from the plurality of files;

determining that the second file does not have a corresponding entry in the attribute cache;

determining that at least one second file native attribute of the second file does not match at least one second file logical attribute of the second file;

deriving the at least one second file logical attribute of the second file; and

generating a second entry in the attribute cache corresponding to the second file, wherein the second entry indicates native attribute values for the second file and the at least one derived second file logical attribute; and

returning, by the layered component, a response to the request, wherein the response comprises, for each of the plurality of files, at least one logical attribute describing the file, wherein the at least one logical attribute describing the first file comprises the at least one first file logical attribute, and wherein the at least one logical attribute describing the second file comprises the at least one second file logical attribute.