(54) COPY PROCESS SUBSTITUTING
COMPRESSIBLE BIT PATTERN FOR ANY
UNQUALIFIED DATA OBJECTS
(75) Inventor: David Maxwell Cannon, Tucson, AZ (US)
(73) Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US)
( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 394 days.
(21) Appl. No.: 10/055,635
(22) Filed: Jan. 22, 2002
(65) Prior Publication Data
US 2003/0154220 Al Aug. 14, 2003
(51) Int. CI.7 G06F 17/30
(52) U.S. CI 707/204; 707/205; 711/162
(58) Field of Search 707/200-209;
711/161-162; 717/4, 126
(56) References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
5,193,171 A 3/1993 Shinmura et al 395/425
5,832,274 A * 11/1998 Cutler et al 717/171
5,983,239 A 11/1999 Cannon 707/200
6,098,074 A 8/2000 Cannon et al 707/200
6,112,211 A 8/2000 Bradshaw et al 707/205
6,148,412 A 11/2000 Cannon et al 714/6
6,247,171 Bl * 6/2001 Yellin et al 717/126
6,446,176 Bl * 9/2002 West et al 711/162
6,477,702 Bl * 11/2002 Yellin et al 717/126
6,499,041 Bl * 12/2002 Breslau et al 715/505
6,625,622 Bl * 9/2003 Henrickson et al 707/204
6,721,742 Bl * 4/2004 Uceda-Sosa et al 707/10
FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
JP 63-273949 * 11/1988 G06F/12/04
* cited by examiner
Primary Examiner—Greta Robinson
Assistant Examiner—Debbie M. Le
(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Dan Hubert; John Kennel
(57) ABSTRACT
A copy procedure detects qualified data objects in a body of source data, and copies the source data to a target storage unit except for unqualified data objects, which are replaced with a prescribed bit pattern. Following completion of the backup, a record is prepared indicating that all data objects exist in the specified target storage, regardless of whether each data object was replaced with a predetermined bit pattern rather than being physically written to the specified target storage. This process may be repeated in order to perform data reclamation, effectively removing user files no longer qualifying for backup.
11 Claims, 9 Drawing Sheets
