Path lookup in a hierarchical file system
AssigneeQuantum Corporation
InventorKenneth William PRESLAN
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Apparatus and methods are provided herein for path lookup in a hierarchical file system. An inode associated with a requested object is identified. The inode may be organized in an inode table and identified in the table using an inode number. Ancestry information and size constraint information may also be available for the inode. An inode chain associated with the pathway is identified based, at least in part, on ancestry information associated with the inode for the requested object. A size constraint analysis is performed for the requested object. The size altering operation is selectively performed based on the size constraint analysis.
Claims20
A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by an apparatus control the apparatus to perform a method, the method comprising:
- identifying an inode associated with an object located in a hierarchical file system, where the hierarchical file system has a root directory, where the hierarchical file system has a subdirectory that branches out from the root directory along a pathway, and where the object is subject to a size altering operation;
- identifying an inode chain that describes a pathway in the hierarchical file system from the object through a subdirectory based, at least in part, on ancestry information associated with the inode;
- performing a size constraint analysis for the subdirectory on the pathway based, at least in part, on size constraint information associated with the inodes on the inode chain;
- and
- selectively performing the size altering operation associated with the object based, at least in part, on the size constraint analysis.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a processor;
- a memory configured to store a first data structure configured to store inodes and a second data structure configured to store ancestry information and size constraint information for objects located in a hierarchical file system and having entries in the first data structure, where the hierarchical file system has a root directory, and where the hierarchical file system organizes objects in a pathway;
- a set of logics;
- and
- an interface configured to connect the processor, the memory, and the set of logics,
- the set of logics comprising:
- an inode logic configured to identify an inode for an object, and to identify ancestry information and size constraint information associated with the inode;
- and
- a path lookup logic configured to use the ancestry information to discover a pathway, where the pathway describes a path from the root directory to the object through parent objects, and determine whether an object associated with the inode is subject to a size limitation by identifying size constraint information for the parent objects on the pathway.
A method, comprising:
- receiving a request for a size altering operation associated with a file located in a hierarchical file system, where the hierarchical file system, includes objects, where the hierarchical file system has a root directory, and where the objects branch out from the root directory object along pathways;
- identifying an inode associated with, the file;
- estimating a change in size of the file if the size altering operation were to be performed, based, at least in part, on the inode associated with the requested file;
- identifying objects on a pathway based, at least in part, on ancestry information associated with the inode of the file by identifying a parent object;
- comparing the estimated change in the size of the file to a parent size constraint of the parent object, where the parent size constraint limits the size of the parent object;
- and
- determining whether performing the size altering request would violate the parent size constraint;
- where the size altering operation is not performed when the size altering request does violate the parent size constraint.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.