Computer file management system

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US007047257B2

(12) United States Patent

Fletcher et al.

(io) Patent No.: (45) Date of Patent:

US 7,047,257 B2 May 16, 2006

(54) COMPUTER FILE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

(75) Inventors: Thomas O. P. Fletcher, Ottawa (CA);

Peter H. Van Der Veen, Kanata (CA);
Dan Dodge, Ottawa (CA)

(73) Assignee: QNX Software Systems, Ottawa (CA)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 586 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 09/824,252

(22) Filed: Apr. 3, 2001 (65)

(51)

(52) (58)

(56)

Prior Publication Data

US 2002/0143795 Al Oct. 3, 2002

Int. CI.

G06F17/30 (2006.01)

U.S. CI 707/201; 707/200; 707/202

Field of Classification Search 707/200,

707/201, 1; 345/843, 821 See application file for complete search history.

References Cited

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OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Ramesh Govindan "A file system for continuous media",
ACM, vol. 10, No. 4, Nov. 1992, pp. 311-337.*
Paul et al., Using properties for uniform interaction in the
presto document system.*

(Continued)

Primary Examiner—Jean M. Corrielus

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Brinks Hofer Gilson &

Lione

Computer systems with multiple users will typically store various versions of the same software; different versions being required for different platforms and to maintain compatibility with other software applications. These computer files are generally organized in a hierarchical structure to make their location and access easier, but this still results in a very complicated and inefficient system. The invention provides a custom file system which allows each user, node or system, to identify and manage only the files that are pertinent to it. This custom filesystem provides a custom hierarchical structure of files and folders, and links back to the real file locations in the main file system. The custom file system has priority over the main file system, in that a process manager will attempt to address requests on the custom filesystem before trying to place them on the main filesystem.

4 Claims, 8 Drawing Sheets

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Paul et al., "Extending document management systems with user specific active properties".*

Article from Sunworld.com entitled "A file by any other name", http://www.sunworld.com/sunworldonline/swol-091995/swol-09-sysadmin.html, Oct. 18, 2000. Article entitled "A Samba VFS Tutorial", http://samba. cadcamlab.org/lists/samba-docs/Aug2000/00004.html, Oct. 19, 2000, pp. 1-12.

A tutorial on Unix file systems, "Filesystems", http://www. uwsg.Indiana.edu/usail/peripherals/disks/titlesystems/index.html, Oct. 18, 2000, 7 pages.

"Frequently Asked Questions on Windows Registry System", wysiwyg://452/http://www.regedit.com/help/, Oct. 18, 2000, pp. 1-6.

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* cited by examiner