Searching files

• US 9,870,379 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2013
• Issued: 01/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Doshi, Apurva Ashwin, Pang, Juan-Lee, Raciborski, Bohdan W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Park, Grace
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Jessica N
• Application Number:
  US14/089,150
• Publication Number:
  US 20140081948A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,513 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1446 Point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/148 File search processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1873 Versioning file systems, temporal file systems, e.g. file system supporting different historic versions of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/219 Managing data history or versioning querying versioned data G06F16/2474; querying temporal data G06F16/2477

Abstract

Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to searching files. In aspects, a search engine is able to search not only the current files but also is able to search for deleted and previous versions of files that satisfy queries. The search engine may maintain an index that facilitates searches. In addition, the search engine may also determine not only that a file satisfies a query but what version(s) of the file satisfies the query.

Claims

1. A method performed on a computing device that includes at least one processor and memory, the method comprising:

maintaining, by the computing device, an index that comprises tokens that correspond to words that are included in a file in a storage;

receiving, by the computing device, an event associated with a change to the file, the change corresponding to one of deleting a word from the file, or adding a word to the file;

determining, by the computing device, whether the file is located in a protected namespace;

adding, by the computing device to the index, a token for an added word when the change corresponds to a word being added to the file;

retaining, by the computing device in the index, a token for a deleted word when the change corresponds to a word being deleted from the file, wherein the retained token corresponds to the deleted word; and

for a file in the protected namespace, maintaining, by the computing device in the index, tokens for added words and deleted words subsequent to the file in the protected namespace being deleted from the storage, wherein the maintained tokens correspond to the added and deleted words.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

adding, by the computing device to the index new tokens in response to the change that adds the new words to the file, the new tokens corresponding to the new words in the changed file.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising re-indexing, by the computing device in response to the change to the file and based on the file being designated for backup, the changed file.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the file in a non-protected namespace is not designated for backup to the backup storage.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the maintained tokens within the index are maintained within a same storage.

6. At least one computer storage device that is not a signal or wave per se, the at least one computer storage device storing computer-executable instructions that, based on execution by at least one processor of a computing device that includes memory, configure the computing device to perform actions comprising:

maintaining, by the computing device, an index that comprises tokens that correspond to words that are included in a file in a storage;

receiving, by the computing device, an event associated with a change to the file, the change corresponding to one of deleting a word from the file, or adding a word to the file;

determining, by the computing device, whether the file is located in a protected namespace;

adding, by the computing device to the index, a token for an added word when the change corresponds to a word being added to the file;

retaining, by the computing device in the index, a token for a deleted word when the change corresponds to a word being deleted from the file, wherein the retained token corresponds to the deleted word; and

for a file in the protected namespace, maintaining tokens for added words and deleted words in the index subsequent to the file in the protected namespace being deleted from the storage, wherein the maintained tokens correspond to the added and deleted words.

7. The at least one computer storage device of claim 6, the actions further comprising:

adding, by the computing device to the index in response to the change to the file, new tokens for the new words in the changed file.

8. The at least one computer storage device of claim 6, the actions further comprising re-indexing, by the computing device in response to the change to the file and based on the file being designated for backup, the changed file.

9. A system comprising:

a computing device that includes at least one processor, memory, and at least one program module according to which the computing device is configured to;

maintain an index that comprises tokens that correspond to words that are included in a file in a storage including words added to the file and words deleted from the file, wherein the maintained index of tokens correspond to the added words and the deleted words;

determine whether the file is located in a protected namespace;

receive an event indicative of deletion of the file;

when the file is located in the protected namespace;

copy the file to backup storage;

update the index with new tokens corresponding to added words included in the file;

maintain tokens for added words and deleted words in the index subsequent to the file in the protected namespace being deleted from the storage, wherein the maintained tokens correspond to the added and deleted words; and

delete the file from the storage.

10. The system of claim 9, the computing device further configured to:

re-index, in response to a change to the file and based on the file being designated for backup, the changed file.

11. The system of claim 9 in which the file is in a non-protected namespace when it is not designated for backup to the backup storage.

12. The system of claim 11, the computing device further configured to:

receive a query for the file; and

retrieve a last backed-up version of the file in response to the query.

13. The system of claim 9, the computing device further configured to:

receive a query for the file; and

retrieve a version of the file from the current storage in response to the query.