Event notification system tied to a file system

Details Event notification system tied to a file system Event notification system tied to a file system

2000-05-15

2003-04-15

Robinson, Greta (Department: 2177)

Data processing: database and file management or data structures

Database design

Data structure types

C707S793000, C709S207000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06549916

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to electronic file systems, and in particular to a system which implements an operating system file system using a database system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Humans tend to organize information in categories. The categories in which information is organized are themselves typically organized relative to each other in some form of hierarchy. For example, an individual animal belongs to a species, the species belongs to a genus, the genus belongs to a family, the family belongs to an order, and the order belongs to a class.
With the advent of computer systems, techniques for storing electronic information have been developed that largely reflected this human desire for hierarchical organization. Conventional operating systems, for example, provide file systems that use hierarchy-based organization principles. Specifically, a typical operating system file system (“OS file system”) has directories arranged in a hierarchy, and documents stored in the directories. Ideally, the hierarchical relationships between the directories reflect some intuitive relationship between the meanings that have been assigned to the directories. Similarly, it is ideal for each document to be stored in a directory based on some intuitive relationship between the contents of the document and the meaning assigned to the directory in which the document is stored.
FIG. 1
illustrates a typical mechanism by which a software application that creates and uses a file (such as a word processor) stores the file in a hierarchical file system. Referring to
FIG. 1
, an operating system
104
exposes to an application
102
an application programming interface (API). The API thus exposed allows the application
102
to call routines provided by the operating system. The portion of the OS API associated with routines that implement the OS file system is referred to herein as the OS file API. The application
102
calls file system routines through the OS file API to retrieve and store data on disk
108
. The operating system
104
, in turn, makes calls to a device driver
106
that controls access to the disk
108
to cause the files to be retrieved from and stored on disk
106
.
The OS file system routines implement the hierarchical organization of the file system. For example, the OS file system routines maintain information about the hierarchical relationship between files, and provide application
102
access to the files based on their location within the hierarchy.
In contrast to hierarchical approaches to organizing electronic information, a relational database stores information in tables comprised of rows and columns. Each row is identified by a unique RowID. Each column represents an attribute of a record, and each row represents a particular record. Data is retrieved from the database by submitting queries to a database management system (DBMS) that manages the database.
FIG. 2
illustrates a typical mechanism by which a database application accesses information in a database. Referring to
FIG. 2
, database application
202
interacts with a database server
204
through an API provided by the database server
204
(a “database API”). The API thus exposed allows the database application
202
to access data using queries constructed in the database language supported by the database server
204
. One such language that is supported by many database servers is the Structured Query Language (SQL). To the database application
202
, database server
204
makes it appear that all data is stored in rows of tables. However, transparent to database application
202
, the database server
204
actually interacts with the operating system
104
to store the data as files in the OS file system. The operating system
104
, in turn, makes calls to device driver
106
to cause the files to be retrieved from and stored on disk
108
.
Each type of storage system has advantages and limitations. A hierarchically organized storage system is simple, intuitive, and easy to implement, and is a standard model used by most application programs. Unfortunately, the simplicity of the hierarchical organization does not provide the support required for complex data retrieval operations. For example, the contents of every directory may have to be inspected to retrieve all documents created on a particular day that have a particular filename. Since all directories must be searched, the hierarchical organization does nothing to facilitate the retrieval process.
A relational database system is well suited for storing large amounts of information and for accessing data in a very flexible manner. Relative to hierarchically organized systems, data that matches even complex search criteria may be easily and efficiently retrieved from a relational database system. However, the process of formulating and submitting queries to a database server is less intuitive than merely traversing a hierarchy of directories, and is beyond the technical comfort level of many computer users.
Currently, application developers are forced to choose whether they want data created by their applications to be accessible through the hierarchical file system provided by operating systems, or through the more complex query interface provided by database systems. In general, if applications do not demand the complex search capability of a database system, the applications are designed to store their data using the more prevalent and simpler hierarchical file system provided by operating systems. This simplifies both application design and application use, but also limits the flexibility and power with which the data can be accessed.
On the other hand, if complex search capability is required, the applications are designed to access their data using query mechanism provided by database systems. While this increases the flexibility and power with which the data may be accessed, it also increases the complexity of the application, both from the perspective of the designer and the perspective of the user. It further requires the presence of a database system, which imposes an additional expense to the application user.
Based on the foregoing, it is clearly desirable to allow applications to access data using the relatively simple OS file APIs. It is further desirable to allow access to that same data using the more powerful database API.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Techniques for managing files in a computer system are provided. According to one technique, an association is established between a type of file system operation, a file, and an interested entity. It is detected when that type of file system operation is performed on the file. In response to detecting that that type of file system operation is performed on the file, a message is sent to the interested entity.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5047918 (1991-09-01), Schwartz
patent: 5202982 (1993-04-01), Gramlich et al.
patent: 5257366 (1993-10-01), Adair et al.
patent: 5295256 (1994-03-01), Bapat
patent: 5307490 (1994-04-01), Davidon et al.
patent: 5499371 (1996-03-01), Henninger et al.
patent: 5504892 (1996-04-01), Atsatt et al.
patent: 5544360 (1996-08-01), Lewak et al.
patent: 5561763 (1996-10-01), Eto et al.
patent: 5566331 (1996-10-01), Irwin, Jr. et al.
patent: 5574915 (1996-11-01), Lemon et al.
patent: 5682524 (1997-10-01), Freund et al.
patent: 5689706 (1997-11-01), Rao et al.
patent: 5737736 (1998-04-01), Chang
patent: 5758153 (1998-05-01), Atsatt et al.
patent: 5822511 (1998-10-01), Kashyap et al.
patent: 5825353 (1998-10-01), Will
patent: 5832526 (1998-11-01), Schuyler
patent: 5848246 (1998-12-01), Gish
patent: 5878434 (1999-03-01), Draper et al.
patent: 5892535 (1999-04-01), Allen et al.
patent: 5915253 (1999-06-01), Christiansen
patent: 5918225 (1999-06-01), White et al.
patent: 5937406 (1999-08-01), Balabine et al.
patent: 5978791 (1999-11-01), Farber et al.
patent: 5991771 (1999-11-01), Falls et al.
patent: 6023706 (2000-02-01), Schmuck et al.
patent: 6029160 (2000-02-01), Cabrera et al.
patent: 6029166 (2000-02-01), Mutalik et al.
patent: 602917

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Event notification system tied to a file system does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Event notification system tied to a file system, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Event notification system tied to a file system will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3017905