File-system requests supported in user space for enhanced efficiency
First Claim
1. A system for handling file-system requests comprising:
- an application residing in user space of a computing system, the computing system comprising processing logic and memory;
a file system residing in the user space of the computing system; and
a customizing-interface module also residing in the user space and operable to provide a messaging service, within the user space, between the application and the file system, the messaging service supporting a file-system request from the application to the file system, the file-system request providing a non-standard system call, with functionality beyond options offered by a System Call Interface (SCI), newly customized to more efficiently meet requirements of the application, the messaging service made customizable by bypassing the SCI of kernel space pertaining to the computing system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods are disclosed for interacting with a file system. The file system is operable to reside in user space of a computing system. A module, also within user space, may provide a messaging service supporting requests from an application to the file system. By bypassing a System-Call Interface (SCI) of the computing system'"'"'s kernel space, the module may support requests from the application to the file system with enhanced efficiency and/or customizable features not provided by the SCI. In some examples, the module may include a library in an independent layer within user space and below the application, allowing the library to provide an application-independent messaging service for different applications. Furthermore, in some examples, the module may include a segment of memory, within user space, shared between the application and the file system for passing data involved in requests and/or responses to and/or from the file system.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A system for handling file-system requests comprising:
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an application residing in user space of a computing system, the computing system comprising processing logic and memory; a file system residing in the user space of the computing system; and
a customizing-interface module also residing in the user space and operable to provide a messaging service, within the user space, between the application and the file system, the messaging service supporting a file-system request from the application to the file system, the file-system request providing a non-standard system call, with functionality beyond options offered by a System Call Interface (SCI), newly customized to more efficiently meet requirements of the application, the messaging service made customizable by bypassing the SCI of kernel space pertaining to the computing system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for providing enhanced file-system services to an application, comprising:
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receiving, by shared memory in user space, shared by an application and a messaging module and a file system residing at a computing system, comprising a processor and memory, a-request parameters for the file system, the application, the messaging module, and the file system also residing in the user space; providing, by the messaging module, at least one efficiency gain for a request from the application to the file system by providing the request parameters to the shared memory to the request through the messaging module in the user space to the file system and bypass a system call interface for a kernel space pertaining to the computing system; interacting with a storage media device for storage retrieval operations, consistent with the request parameters, by a user-space device driver in the messaging module, operable to perform I/O operations on the storage media device in the user space without first writing the data to kernel space; and reading, by the application, responses to the request parameters retrieved from the storage media device by the user-space device driver, without use of a buffer in kernel space. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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14. A system for providing enhanced file-system services to an application in a data-center computing system, further comprising:
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a local file system operable to function within user space of memory of at least one hardware processor of a compute node, the compute node within a data-center comprising multiple computing nodes, each compute node having a hardware processor and memory; a messaging module also operable to function in user space of the memory of the at least one hardware processor of the compute node and to broker requests from an application to the local file system and responses to the requests within user space, avoiding constraints on interactions imposed by a kernel-space interface for system calls; a library within the messaging module operable to provide storage and retrieval interactions on and from, respectively, a storage media device by handling I/O operations in user space with a user-space device driver for an efficiency not offered by the kernel-space interface for system calls; and shared memory, in the user space, shared by the application and the library and the file system and operable to receive request parameters for the file system and responses to the request parameters retrieved from the storage medium device by the user-space device driver, without use of a buffer in kernel space, for reading by the application. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification