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Peter J Cook

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A distributed file system uses objects to model the behavior of components of the distributed file system. Each object has an associated logical path name and physical address. An aggregation of all the logical path names comprises a distributed name space which can be logically partitioned into domains. Each domain includes a domain folder object which maps logical path names of objects in the domain containing the domain folder object, into addresses in the distributed system where the objects are stored. The addresses of the objects are used to access the objects in order to retrieve information from the distributed system.

Distributed file system providing a unified name space with efficient

A replication facility provides for the replication of files or portions of files in a distributed environment. The replication facility is able to replicate any subtree within a distributed namespace of the distributed environment. The replication facility provides multi-mastered, weakly consistent replication. The replication facility supports both public replication and private replication.

Replication facility

A system provides support for the use of summary catalog data structures. In particular, the system defines such summary catalogs as data structures and provides standardized methods for operating on the data structures. The summary catalogs provide a convenient and highly available mechanism for obtaining information regarding files in the system. The summary catalogs are closely tied to queries in that the summary catalogs store query results. The summary catalogs may be encapsulated into objects that hold selected properties that are derived from other objects in a query or may be formed by other mechanisms. Copies of a summary catalog may be kept consistent using replication that propagates changes. In addition, consistency of summary catalogs with the source objects from which they originated may be maintained.

Summary catalogs

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Peter J Cook