JP2001109618A - History managing file system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a history managing file system for surely executing file creation and file update such as content change and deletion in the history management of a file to frequently update contents in a personal computer or work station. SOLUTION: A computer system 1 is provided with an automatic history managing system 12. This automatic history managing system 12 is provided with a file system monitoring process 13 for always monitoring access from an editor 11 to a secondary storage device 3 storing a file 342, a history managing process 14 to be triggered by this process 13, and a history managing command 15 for registering/editing the file into a history managing database 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a history management file system, and more particularly to a computer system such as a personal computer (PC) or a workstation (WS) which performs file management when a file system is virtually expanded to perform history management. The present invention relates to a file system that monitors creation and storage of a file in a specific partition of a system and automatically executes a history management process.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When managing files (for example, software source codes, documents, images, etc.) that are frequently updated on a computer system such as a PC or WS,
Often uses version control tools. By using the version management tool, file history management such as accumulation of versions, extraction of an arbitrary version, recording of update contents for each file, and synthesis of a plurality of versions can be easily performed.

Here, a flow of history management when a conventional version management tool is used will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10. FIG. Here, as an example, the history management of a text file created and updated using an editor will be described.

First, a case where a file is newly created will be described. Referring to FIG. 9, the system comprises:
It comprises a computer system 1, a secondary storage device 3, and a history management database 4. The computer system 1 includes the editor 111 and the version management tool 20. The secondary storage device 3 includes a file 30, and the history management database 4 includes history information (first edition) 41.

[0005] The file creator saves a document created using the editor 111 on the computer system 1 as a file 30 in the secondary storage device 3. Then, in order to manage the history of the file 30, the file 30 is registered in the history management database 4 using the version management tool 20. The registered file is history-managed as the first version 41. The first edition 4 is a complete copy of the file 30, and the first edition 41 has all the information of the file 30. At this point, the history information on the file 30 in the history management database 4 is the first version 41
Only exists.

Next, a case in which a change is made to the history-managed file 30 will be described. Referring to FIG. 10, the file updater first takes out an arbitrary version from the history information registered in the history management database 4 onto the secondary storage device 3 (here, the first version 41 is taken out). Then, the file 30 extracted on the secondary storage device 3 is edited by the editor 111, and the edited content is saved as the file 30 on the secondary storage device 3. Finally, the updated contents of the file 30 are registered as the second edition 42 in the history management database 4 using the version management tool 20.

At this time, most version management tools register only the difference information between the file before update and the file after update as history information 42. There is also a version management tool that registers a copy of the updated file as the history information 42 in the history management database 4 as it is.

[0008] Similarly, by registering in the history management database 4, as shown in FIG.
And later versions are the history management database 4
And history information is accumulated.
With the function provided by this version control tool 20,
It is also possible to take out not only the latest version but any version from the history information. In the case of a version management tool having only differences from all versions as history information, the file contents of an arbitrary version can be restored by assembling the registered history management information. Referring to FIG. 12, when it is desired to extract the second edition of a certain file 31, the second edition history information 42 which is the difference information from the first edition to the second edition is combined by combining the first edition history information 41 and the second edition history information 42. Restore the version.

As described above, in the history management of the file 30 using the conventional version management tool 20, when the file 30 is created or updated, the user of the computer system 1 uses the version management tool 20 himself / herself. Must be explicitly registered and retrieved from the history management database 4.

[0010]

There are several problems in the above-mentioned conventional file history management. The first problem is that although the work of correcting / updating a file for which history management is performed and the history management with the history management tool are two sides of the same coin, they are separate tasks. It is. As a result, if there is a time difference between the correction of the file and the registration in the history management database, there is a possibility that registration omission or registration error may occur.

A second problem is that in many version management tools, a history management code (for example, “$ Id $” or the like) unique to each version management tool is used as a processing code in a file to be managed for history management processing. Special character string) must be embedded. When the version management tool 20 finds this history management code in the file 30, it treats this part as a history management code different from the file contents. This processing code is usually assigned a special character string that is not expected to be used in the file 30. In the case of software source code or the like, it cannot always be said that there is no character string in the file 30 that is the same as that set in the processing code. If there are several character strings set in the history management code in the file 30, the version management tool 20 regards them all as history management codes, and history management may not be performed normally. There is. For this reason, when managing files that may contain the same character string as the history management code with the history management tool, you must check the contents of the file before registering it in the history management database. No.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a history management file system capable of reliably preventing registration omission. Another object of the present invention is to reduce man-hours and human errors in file history management.

[0013]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a history management file system according to the present invention employs the following characteristic configuration.

(1) In a history management file system of a computer system used together with a secondary storage device for storing a file newly created, changed or deleted and a history management database for managing history data of the file, The system includes an automatic history management system including a file system monitoring process, monitors access to the secondary storage device by a user process such as an editor of the computer system, newly creates the file,
A history management file system that monitors changes or deletions.

(2) The history management file system according to (1), wherein the change in the file is automatically registered as history information of the file in the history management database upon access to the secondary storage device as a trigger.

(3) The automatic history management system of the computer system includes a history management command which is software for registering and editing the file in the history management database, and a history management process using the history management command. (1) or (2) including the history management process that performs
History management file system.

(4) The history management file system according to (1), wherein the secondary storage device and the history management database constitute a virtual extended file system.

(5) The history management file system according to the above (1), wherein each history information of the history management database can be taken out for each of the first version and each subsequent version.

[0019]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of a history management file system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a first embodiment of a history management file system (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as a file system or a system) according to the present invention. This file system is computer system 1,
The present invention can be applied to a PC or WS constituted by a secondary storage device 3 for storing a file 32 and a history management database 4 having history information 41, 42, 43. Here, the computer system 1 includes an editor 11 and an automatic history management system 1
And 2. In addition, the automatic history management system 12
Includes a file system monitoring process 13, a history management process 14, and a history management command 15. The file system of the present invention is realized by software running on the computer system 1 together with the secondary storage device 3 and the history management database 4. The secondary storage device 3 and the history management database 4 may both be magnetic disk devices.

Software operating on the computer system 1 for realizing the file system of the present invention includes three types: a file system monitoring process 13, a history management process 14, and a history management command 15. Each of these software operates as follows. The file system monitoring process 13 constantly monitors access to the secondary storage device 3 by a user process such as an editor, and notifies the history management process 14 when a file is newly created, updated, or deleted. Has a role. The monitoring target is not limited to the entire storage area of the secondary storage device 3 but is limited to an arbitrary partition set in the secondary storage device 3. This prevents the file system monitoring process 13 from unnecessarily consuming computer resources such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and memory. Further, it is possible to prevent the performance of the entire computer system 1 from deteriorating. However, the entire secondary storage device 3 is regarded as one partition,
It is assumed that the entire storage area of the secondary storage device 3 can be monitored.

Next, the history management process 14 is a process for performing a history management process by using a notification from the file system monitoring process 13 as a trigger. History management process 1
4 does not have a function for actually managing the history. This is implemented by a history management command 15 described later. The history management process 14 uses this history management command 15 to implement history management processing.

The history management command 15 is software that implements a function for registering and editing the file 32 in the history management database 4. When registering the history information of the file 32 in the history management database 4, the history management command 15 is called by the history management process 14 and performs the registration processing of the history information. When editing the history management information registered in the history management database 4, the history management function command 15 is directly called by the user of the computer system 1 via the user interface of the computer system 1. It is assumed that the user of the computer system 1 can directly call and use the functions other than the registration of the history information, and the registration of the history management information is automatically executed by the history management process 14 to the last.

The file system monitoring process 13 and the history management process 14 operate as a daemon process on the computer system 1. Normally, the user of the computer system 1 does not recognize these existences. In the file system of the present invention, the user of the computer system 1
It can be seen that a file system provided with an automatic history management function is provided. This virtually extended file system is referred to as a “virtual extended file system” 2.

Next, the operation of the file system of the present invention will be described. The flow of the registration processing of the history management information when the file 32 is newly created will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the file system monitoring process 13 constantly monitors access to the secondary storage device 3 (Step S21 in FIG. 2). In the next step S22, it is determined whether or not access has been made. If there is no access, the process returns to step S21, and if there is an access, the process proceeds to step S23. In this step S23, the file system monitoring process 13 notifies the history management process 14 that access has been made. Next, in step S24, it is determined whether a new file can be created. If it is a new creation, the process proceeds to step S25. If it is not a new creation, the process proceeds to step S26. In step S25, the history management command 15 is used to register the file as it is as the first version of the history information of the file.

Next, in step S26, if the content of the file is changed, the process proceeds to step S27, and if not, the process proceeds to step S29. In the case of file content change, in step S27, a difference between the content of the changed file and the history information of the latest version of this file is obtained. Then, in step S28, the history management command 15
Is used to register the difference information as the latest version of the history information of this file. In step S29, it is determined whether or not the file is to be deleted. If the file is to be deleted, the information that the file has been deleted is registered as history information of the latest version of the file using the history management command 15. (Step S30 in FIG. 2).

The secondary storage device 3 is operated by a user process.
To “Create new file”, “Update file contents”,
When "delete file" is performed, the operation is performed as described above, and the explanatory diagrams are shown in FIGS. That is, when the file 32 of which automatic history management is performed by the file system of the present invention is updated, the content is automatically recognized, and the changed content is registered in the history management database 4 as history information. . This processing flow is shown in FIG.
This will be described below with reference to FIG.

When the content of the file stored on the secondary storage device 3 and subjected to automatic history management is updated, the file system monitoring process 13 (see FIG. 4)
Notifies this to the history management process 14 (step S23 in FIG. 2). The history management process 14 uses the history management command 15 to store the file 3 on the secondary storage device 3.
2 and the latest history information (in this case, “first edition”) registered in the history management database 4, and compare the contents, “added part”, “deleted part”, “changed part” The difference information 16 (see FIG. 4) including only the information is created. Then, this difference information is stored in the latest history information 42.
As shown in FIG. 4, the history management command 15 is used to register in the history management database 4.

When the file 32 stored on the secondary storage device 3 and subjected to the automatic history management according to the present invention is deleted from the secondary storage device 3, the same operation as when the content is updated is performed. The operation in this case will be described with reference to FIG. 2, FIG. 4, and FIG.

When a file 32 stored on the secondary storage device 3 and subjected to automatic history management according to the present invention is deleted, the file system monitoring process 13 (see FIG. 4) deletes the file 32 from the history management. Notify process 14.
If the file 32 has been updated, the secondary storage device 3
The difference information 16 (see FIG. 4) between the above file 32 and the latest history information (in this case, “first edition”) registered in the history management database 4 was registered as history information.
If the information has been deleted, the information “all contents have been deleted” is registered as difference information 16 in the history management database 4. As a result, the virtual extended file system 2
As shown in FIG. 5, the file 32 does not exist in the secondary storage device 3, but the history of the revision, that is, the first version 41 and the second version 42 remain in the history management database 4 as shown in FIG.

As described above, in the file system of the present invention, even when the file 32 to be subjected to history management is deleted, its history information remains in the history management database 4 together with the history of "deleted". If the file 32 has been deleted or if it is no longer needed and has been deleted, but is needed again, the file can be restored.

Next, extraction of arbitrary history management information according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
In the present invention, registration of file history information is automatically performed. If a user of the computer system 1 tries to extract any version of a file whose history is managed by the file system of the present invention, this is not automatically performed. Therefore, the user himself / herself can use the history management command 15 (FIG. 7).
(See). This procedure will be described below separately for the case of extracting the first version of the file and the case of extracting the second and subsequent versions.

When taking out the first version, the computer system 1
User calls the history management command 15 from the user interface of the computer system 1. The first version of the history information 41 (see FIG. 7) registered in the history management database 4 is developed on the secondary storage device 3 as a file 32. When extracting the second edition or later, the history management command 15 is displayed on the user interface in the same manner as in the first edition.
Call. Assemble everything from the history information 41 of the first version registered in the history management database 4 to the history information of the version to be taken out, and restore the file of any version to be taken out,
It is developed as a file 32 on the secondary storage device 3. Also, in the present invention, the partition 3 to be a history management target
All writing to 1 automatically performs history management as history information. Therefore, in the case of a file that is frequently read and written, the amount of history information may be enormous. For this reason, means for browsing and combining the history information is provided to the computer system user as a function of the history management command.

The operation of reading the history information described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, step S6
In step 1, the user of the computer system 1 uses the history management command 15 to retrieve an arbitrary version of a file whose history is managed from the history management database 4. Next, in step S62, it is determined whether or not the extracted version is the first version. In the case of the first version, the process proceeds to step S63, and the history information registered as the first version of this file in the history management database 4 is developed on the secondary storage device 3 as it is. On the other hand, if it is not the first version, the process proceeds to step S64, and among the history information registered in the history management database 4,
Combine all history information from the first version to the version you want to retrieve and restore any version of the file. Finally, step
In S65, the restored version is stored in the secondary storage device 3
Expand to

The browsing function of the history information is provided by the computer system 1
Is called by the user of the computer system 1 from above the shell. Difference information between any version of the file 32 whose history is managed by the file system of the present invention can be displayed as a revision history. The history information combining function is also called by the user of the computer system 1 from the shell of the computer system 1 in the same manner as the browsing function. Multiple pieces of history information can be combined into one piece of history information.

Next, a second embodiment of the file system according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The configuration of this embodiment is similar to the configuration of FIG. In the second embodiment of the file system according to the present invention, the user interface of the computer system 1 is not used without always monitoring the partition of the file system to be managed by using the file system monitoring process 13 in FIG. 11a is extended to the present invention. The extended user interface 11a notifies the history management process only when there is an access to the partition 31 to be managed.

In the first embodiment of the present invention, since the file system monitoring process 13 constantly monitors the file system, resources of the computer system 1 such as a CPU and a memory are consumed for this processing. , This becomes overhead. The second embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG.
In the embodiment, the conventional user interface of the computer system is extended, and when the user of the computer system 1 performs an operation for accessing the file system, the extended user interface 11 displays the history. Notify management processes.

The extended user interface 11 notifies the history management process 14 only when the user of the computer system 1 performs an operation for accessing the file system. One resource is not consumed and becomes an overhead of the entire computer system. Other operations are the same as in the first embodiment.

The preferred embodiment of the history management file system according to the present invention has been described above in detail. However, the present invention should not be limited to the embodiment only, and it can be easily understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made in accordance with a specific application.

[0040]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the history management file system of the present invention, various remarkable effects can be obtained as compared with the prior art. First, the history information can be registered in the history management database only by the user of the computer system creating, editing, and deleting a file on the file system. Thus, the user of the computer system does not need to be conscious of the history management registration of the file at all, and it is possible to reduce the omission of the history management registration and the man-hour required for the history management registration. The reason is that the file system of the present invention constantly monitors an arbitrary partition, creates a new file,
This is because when editing or deletion is performed, this is recognized and the history information is automatically registered in the history management database.

Second, the user of the computer system can edit the history information in the history management database by using the history management command. The reason is that, in the file system of the present invention, history management information is registered for all editing of files in the partition to be history-managed, so that the history information of a file that has been updated is enormous. However, by providing the editing function of the history management information, a huge amount of history information can be organized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a system that employs a history management file system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the file system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a history information (first edition) registration operation in the file system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of history information (second edition) registration operation in the file system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an automatic history management file system according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation of extracting history management information of the history management file system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a state in which history information of up to three versions is registered in the automatic history management system of the present invention.

FIG. 8 shows a second example of the history management file system according to the present invention.
It is a block diagram showing composition of an embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a conventional history management system.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a history information registration operation of the history management system of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 shows a history information registration operation of the history management system of FIG. 9;

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram of a history information extracting operation in the history management system of FIG. 9;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Computer system 3 Secondary storage device 4 History management database 11 Editor 12 Automatic history management system 13 File system monitoring process 14 History management process 15 History management command

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A history management file system for a computer system used together with a secondary storage device for storing a file newly created, changed or deleted and a history management database for managing the history data of the file. Comprises an automatic history management system including a file system monitoring process, monitors access to the secondary storage device by a user process such as an editor of the computer system, and monitors creation, modification or deletion of the file. Characteristic history management file system. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the change of the file is automatically registered as history information of the file in the history management database upon access to the secondary storage device as a trigger. History management file system. 3. The automatic history management system of the computer system, wherein a history management command which is software for registering and editing the file in the history management database, and a history management process using the history management command. 3. The history management file system according to claim 1, further comprising a history management process to be performed. 4. The history management file system according to claim 1, wherein said secondary storage device and said history management database constitute a virtual extended file system. 5. The history management file system according to claim 1, wherein each history information of said history management database can be taken out for each of the first version and each subsequent version.