Integrative Graph File Systems
Name
Dmitri Borissenko
Abstract
The main concept of the proposed Integrative Graph File Systems is based on bidirectional relationship between two objects (bidirectional linking). The main features are up-to-date links, no broken references, and improved organization of existing file hierarchy. Nowadays, it is hard to maintain the variety of a constantly increasing number of files. Over time, even a simple file can be lost in the deep hierarchy of user files. With the work proposed here, it is possible to prevent such a loss by offering different ways to traverse the hierarchies while still ending up at the same file. This method is similar to tagging. The work allows the user to easily place a single file in multiple locations on meta-info level and quickly find the incoming links. Thus, the user always knows all objects which are pointing to the target and vice-versa. All basic file operations are supported (like delete, move or rename). The main goals of this work are to prove the possibility of the existence of integrative file systems with bidirectional linking and to show the advantages of such a feature. Integration means the possibility to use such a file system with the standard file operation and exploration tools available in current operating systems. The work analyzes and evaluates research of similar approaches and presents an own solution, based on the FUSE (File system in User Space) extension platform. This solution is applied to several example scenarios. The design supports other add-on modifications to the current system, allowing the extension of the project to unify and sort different data in a graph based file system. As this is an integrative approach, no explicit user interface will be provided. The future work will hint at possible extensions to a collaborative multi-user file system, which assumes the combination of local space and different network or cloud based data providers.
Graduation Thesis language
English
Graduation Thesis type
Master - Information Technology
Supervisor(s)
Ulrich Norbisrath
Defence year
2011