Abstract - Technical Program - OSDI 99
Integrating Content-based Access Mechanisms with Hierarchical File Systems
Burra Gopal, Microsoft Corp
Udi Manber, University of Arizona
Abstract
We present a new file system that combines name-based and
content-based access to files at the same time. Our design allows both
methods to be used at any time, thus preserving the benefits of both.
Users can create their own name spaces based on queries, on explicit
path names, or on any combination interleaved arbitrarily. All regular
file operations - such as adding, deleting, or moving files - are
supported in the same way, and in addition, query consistency is
maintained and adapted to what the user is manually doing. One can
add, remove, or move results of queries, and in general handle them as
if they were regular files. This creates interesting new consistency
problems, for which we suggest and implement solutions. Remote file
systems or remote query systems (e.g., web search) can be integrated
by users into their own coherent name spaces in a clean way. We
believe that our design can serve as the basis for the future
information-rich file systems, allowing users better handle on their
information.
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