Method and system for creating and maintaining version-specific properties in a file
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorJonathan Goldick
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and system creates and maintains a version-specific attribute or property that is stored as part of a file in a file system, contains specific version information relating to how or when the attribute was created and is automatically invalidated when a predetermined “update” event occurs. Third party applications generally create and access these versions-specific attributes to thereby eliminate the need for external logs or databases to store persistent state information.
Claims3
A method of providing a file stored in a computer system with version-specific information relating to a replicator application that is independent from an application used to create the file, the method comprising:
- receiving a request from the replicator application to create a version-specific attribute associated with the file, wherein the version-specific attribute contains version-specific information relating to the replicator application;
- maintaining the version-specific attribute to reflect relevant updates to the file by automatically invalidating the version-specific information in response to a predetermined event, wherein the version-specific attribute comprises mask information providing information related to which predetermined events invalidate the version-specific information;
- receiving a request from the replicator application to evaluate the version-specific attribute;
- and
- providing the version specific information to the replicator application in response to the request to evaluate the version-specific attribute.
A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, wherein the data structure comprises:
- an actual file data section containing actual file data;
- a header section;
- a version-specific attribute section, wherein the version-specific attribute section is created by a virus scanning application that is independent from an application used to create the actual file data, and wherein the version-specific attribute comprises a meta information section and a mask information section, the mask information section providing information related to which predetermined events invalidate the version-specific attribute, and wherein the version-specific attribute is invalidated in response to one of said predetermined events;
- and
- wherein the predetermined event relates to a modification of metadata associated with the file.
A method of providing a services layer with a virus-scan function for performing virus scanning and cleaning functions each time a file is accessed by another application or module, the method comprising:
- receiving a request from the services layer to create a version-specific attribute associated with one or more files, wherein the version-specific attribute contains version-specific information relating to an application;
- and
- providing a virus-scan function that performs virus scanning and cleaning functions each time a file is accessed by an application or module.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.