JPH05250241A - Filing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the stop of file processing for information storage mediums, which are placed under a higher-order information storage medium, due to a fault of this information storage medium, where connection points are set, while performing the branched (directed tree type) hierarchical management of plural information storage mediums and files generated in these information storage mediums. CONSTITUTION:A connection point information storage part 8 is provided independently of information storage mediums 20. Connection points of lower-order information storage mediums to higher-order information storage mediums are set to the connection point information storage part 8, and a file management processing part 9 is provided which records and refers to connection point information for lower-order information storage mediums corresponding to connection points set in the connection point information storage part 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a file device having a plurality of information storage media, and in particular, files stored in the information storage media are managed in a directed tree type hierarchical file structure, and the hierarchical file structure. The present invention relates to a file device in which the information storage medium is managed in a directed tree type hierarchical connection configuration.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a plurality of files are stored in an information storage medium, it is often the case that the plurality of files are managed in a directed tree type hierarchical file structure. When storing a plurality of files in such a hierarchical file structure in a file device having a plurality of information storage media, make the user aware of the physical model number of the information storage medium in which each file is stored. In order to allow the user to handle each individual file with a unified file name, the information storage medium itself is often managed by a directed tree type hierarchical connection configuration. The hierarchical connection configuration of the information storage medium is to give a branch (directed tree type) connection relationship to each information storage medium, and to handle all file processing, branch from the root of the branch management in order. It is possible to access the information storage medium storing the target file and process the target file. In this case, in order to access the lower information storage medium, a connection point is set in the upper information storage medium for storing access information to the subordinate information storage medium.

Such a file device can handle a plurality of information storage media as if they were one medium without the user having to be aware of the physical model number of the medium, and the file device as a whole. There is an advantage that the medium capacity can be flexibly expanded.

[0004]

However, in the file device that manages a plurality of information storage media in the above-mentioned hierarchical connection configuration, since the branch-shaped medium management is performed, the information storage media connected to the lower side When processing a file to the information storage medium, it is necessary to process the upper information storage medium to which the connection point to the information storage medium is set. There is an inconvenience that the files in the information storage medium connected below the point cannot be processed.

In order to reduce the occurrence of failure of the information storage medium, there is a file device which uses a semiconductor storage device without using a magnetic disk or the like having a mechanical portion as the information storage medium. However, when a semiconductor memory device is used, it cannot be detached unlike a medium such as a magnetic disk, so a separate input / output mechanism is required,
In addition, there is a problem that the influence of a physical device failure still exists. A file device in which a failure of one information storage medium does not spread to other information storage media by performing independent management for each information storage medium without performing the above-described branch management for a plurality of information storage media. However, in this case, the advantage of performing branch management is lost, and there is a problem that it cannot be applied to the processing of a user who is premised on branch management.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems of the conventional technique, and to provide a branch (directed tree type) hierarchy for a plurality of information storage media and files generated in these information storage media. (EN) It is possible to provide a file device capable of preventing stop of file processing to an information storage medium under its control due to a failure of an upper information storage medium having a connection point set therein, while performing active management.

[0007]

In the file device of the present invention, the connection point information storage means provided separately from the information storage medium and the connection point of the lower information storage medium to the upper information storage medium are connected. And a file management processing unit which is set in the point information storage unit and records and refers to the connection point set in the connection point information storage unit, connection point information for a lower information storage medium corresponding to the connection point. ..

[0008]

Since the connection point for connecting the upper information storage medium and the lower information storage medium is set in the connection point information storage means provided separately from the information storage medium, the advantage of branch-shaped file management It is possible to prevent the file processing from being stopped due to a failure of the higher-level information storage medium while maintaining the above and maintaining the applicability to conventional user processing.

In this case, in view of the importance of the connection point, at least the connection point for the information storage medium corresponding to the root in the hierarchical connection configuration may be set in the connection point information storage means.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a file device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

This file device has a structure in which an information storage unit 1, a management information storage unit 2, and a processing execution unit 3 are mutually connected by a data bus 4. The data bus 4 is also used when exchanging data with the outside of the file device. The information storage unit 1 includes an information storage medium group 5 including a plurality of information storage media 20, and a medium input / output execution unit 6 that is directly connected to the data bus 4 and performs input / output processing to each information storage medium 20. And are provided. The management information recording unit 2 includes a file management information recording unit 7 including a system management table 13 and a connection point information storage unit 8 including a connection point management table 11 and a medium management table 12, and serves as connection point information storage means. Operate. Further, the processing execution unit 3 accepts various processing requests to the file device from the outside for executing various file management processing, and various processing requests to this file device from the outside, and performs necessary processing to the file management processing unit 9. It is composed of a request reception processing unit 10 to be activated.

Here, the file management processing unit 9 will be described. The file management processing unit 9 has the following general file management functions, namely, information storage medium initialization, file management information initialization, directory creation, file system incorporation, file generation, file opening, file writing, and file It holds a procedure for realizing functions such as reading a file, closing a file, and the like by using the management information storage unit 2 and the information storage unit 1, and executes a process in accordance with a request content from the request reception processing unit 10. is there. Among the various file management functions described above, the processes up to are to process the substance of the file, so the file management processing unit 9 performs the same process as a conventional file device. On the other hand, the functions up to are not for processing the substance of the file. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the file management processing unit 9
With respect to the above-mentioned functions (1) to (4), the information recorded in the connection point management table 11 in the connection point information storage unit 8 is used to access the information storage medium of the lower order than the information storage medium of the higher order without accessing the actual information storage medium. Processing can be performed. That is, the file management processing unit 9 operates as file management processing means.

Hereinafter, the information storage medium 20 initialized to a file processable state is referred to as a file system. Also, the file system (which became the information storage medium)
Incorporation of the above into the management system in the file device to enable processing of files is called incorporation of the file system. In short, the file device of this embodiment has a function of setting a virtual file system only for incorporating a file system, in addition to the actual file system.

Next, this embodiment will be described with reference to a concrete example. FIG. 2 shows an example of the hierarchical structure of files in this specific example, and FIG. 3 shows the relationship among the system management table, connection point management table, and medium management table. In FIG. 2, the six file systems a to f are
It has a directed tree type hierarchical connection configuration. In each of the file systems a to f, a directory (represented by "○" in the figure) and a file (represented by "□" in the figure) in the system of file management are generated. What is a directory?
It is for creating files under it, and also for other file systems (lower level file systems)
It is an administrative connection point for incorporating. In addition, in each of the file systems a to f, a root directory (a directory in which "/" is written in the figure is a directory that is a starting point of the file system when the information storage medium is initialized and set as a file system. ) Is set. Not surprisingly, the root directory of the underlying file system is
Logically connected to the directory that is the connection point in the upper level file system. Here, the root directory set as the starting point of the entire file device is called the system root directory.

In the example shown in FIG. 2, the file system a
The system root directory is set in the and the two directories A and B are subordinate to the system root directory.
Has been created. These directories A and B are for incorporating the two file systems b and c located under the file system a, respectively. In file system b, under its root directory,
Two files F and G and one directory H are set, and under this directory H, three files O to Q are generated. Also, for the file system c, three directories I to K are generated under the root directory, and these directories I to K are generated.
File systems d to f are incorporated in K. Directories and files are respectively generated under the three file systems d to f. For example, three files L to N are generated under the root directory of the file system f.

When these file systems are incorporated into the upper file system, the file system generated by initializing the actual information storage medium is incorporated, that is, the connection information to the lower file system is stored in the upper file system ( It can be held in a directory (which becomes the connection point), but if the upper file system fails, the processing for the lower files will stop. For example, when the file system c fails, the processing on the files in the file systems d to f stops. In particular, when the file system a in which the system root directory is set fails, processing for all files in the file device stops.

In this embodiment, no files are created in the file system a and the file system c, but only directories are created. Therefore, the connection points from these file systems a and c to the lower file systems are stored as management information. It is set in the section 2 and the access information to the lower file system is stored in the management information storage section 2. As a result, even if the file systems a and c fail, it is possible to prevent the file processing from being stopped for the lower file systems b, d, e, and f.

Here, regarding the management information storage unit 2, FIG.
Will be described in more detail.

The system management table 13 stores system root directory information. This system root directory information is composed of a pointer to an area corresponding to the file system a in the connection point management table 11 described later. The connection point management table 11 is for writing information of connection points belonging to the file system for each higher-level file system for which connection points are set in the connection point management table 11. In the medium management table 12, pointers such as the physical machine number of the information storage medium to which the file system belongs are written for each file system set in the actual information storage medium. This pointer is set in the entries (here, entries # 1 to # 4) provided for each file system of the medium management table 12.

By configuring the management information storage unit 2 in this way, the file device of this embodiment operates as follows.

When this file device is started up, the connection points belonging to the file systems a and c are set in the management information storage unit 2. That is, the virtual file systems a and c are generated in the management information storage unit 2 by the system generation information preset as the procedure information of the file management processing unit 9. At this time, an empty area of the connection point management table 11 in the connection point information storage unit 8 is acquired, and information on the connection points belonging to the file systems a and c is written. By writing the information of the connection points in the connection point management table 11, the connection relationship of the file systems is recorded, and the file systems a and c are composed only of the directories which are the connection points for the lower file systems. By doing so, the file systems a and c are substantially created in the management information storage unit 2.

Next, as an initialization operation in the file management information storage unit 7 (setting a system root directory in the file system a is preset as system generation information as procedure information in the file management processing unit 9). The pointer of the area corresponding to the file system a of the connection point management table 11 is set as the system root directory information in the system management table 13 of the file management information storage unit 7.

Then, the file systems b to f lower than the file system a are sequentially incorporated into the file system. This file system incorporation is performed by the file management processing unit 9 according to the above-described system generation information or request information (instruction of file system incorporation) instructed by the user via the request processing acceptance unit 10. At this time, with respect to the file systems set in the actual information storage medium, that is, the file systems b, d, e, f, pointers such as the physical machine number of the actual information storage medium are stored in the individual entries of the medium management table 12. Is set. The incorporation of this file system is performed by setting the directory information item set in the entry corresponding to each file system in the connection point management table 11 and the reference relation of the pointer of each entry in the medium management table 12. Be done. In this case, the file system c is incorporated under the file system a, but since the file system c is virtually set in the management information storage unit 2, the file system a of the connection point management table 11 is set.
In the area related to, the directory information corresponding to the file system c serves as a pointer to the area for the file system c separately provided in the connection point management table 11. In FIG. 3, the display of A, B, ..., K in the connection point management table 11 corresponds to the directories A, B, ..., K in the file systems a, c in FIG.
The arrow-indicated relationships in FIG. 3 represent these reference relationships.

By the above operation, when the file device is started up, the file management system based on the hierarchical connection structure in the file device as shown in FIG. 2 is set. As a result, the user finds that the file system a, c, which is the starting point on the upper side of the file system b, d, e, f (the file system set on the actual information storage medium), is in the actual information storage medium. Files can be processed in the same file management system as in the case of existing in. That is, to access the files in the file systems b, d, e, f, first, the system root directory information in the system management table 13 is referred to, and the file system a in the connection point management table 11 is read according to the read pointer. Area (the "information on the connection point a" in the figure) is read, and if the target file exists in the file system b, the item of the directory A corresponding to the file system b is read from the connection point management table 11. The medium management table 12 based on the read result
The physical machine number of the actual information storage medium in which the file system b exists is known from the entry corresponding to the file system b, and the information storage medium in which the file system b exists is accessed according to this physical machine number. Even when the target file is on the lower side of the file system c, the area corresponding to the file system c of the connection point management table 11 ("information on connection point c" in the figure)
Access is made in the same manner, with only additional references to.

The file systems a and c, which are set in the management information storage unit 2 by setting the connection points in the connection point information storage unit 8, do not exist as the management information in the file device. As long as the management information storage unit 2 that controls the management information of this file device does not fail, the processing of files to the file systems b, d, e, f is performed when the information storage medium itself of the file system fails. Except for this, it is guaranteed. The failure of the management information storage unit 2 means the stop of the function of the entire file device.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described above. As is clear from the above description, the position of the file system when the connection point is set outside the information storage medium is:
The higher the level of branch management (the closer to the root of the directed tree), the more effective. Specifically, it is most effective to apply the present invention to the file system corresponding to the highest system root directory. However, the present invention can be applied to any connection point other than the uppermost connection point according to the importance of each connection point, and can exhibit excellent effects.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, the connection point for connecting the upper information storage medium and the lower information storage medium is connected point information storage means provided separately from the information storage medium. By setting, there is an effect that it is possible to prevent the stop of the file processing due to the failure of the upper information storage medium. In particular, by applying to a file system that is the starting point of a directed tree type hierarchical connection configuration or a file system that needs to incorporate a large number of file systems under it, it is possible to provide a highly reliable file device. ..

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a file device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hierarchical structure of files in the file device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a relationship among a system management table, a connection point management table, and a medium management table.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Information Storage Unit 2 Management Information Storage Unit 3 Processing Execution Unit 4 Data Bus 5 Information Storage Medium Group 6 Media Input / Output Execution Unit 7 File Management Information Storage Unit 8 Connection Point Information Storage Unit 9 File Management Processing Unit 10 Request Acceptance Processing Unit 11 Connection point management table 12 Medium management table 13 System management table 20 Information storage medium af File system

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of information storage media, wherein files stored in the information storage media are managed in a directed tree type hierarchical file structure, and the information storage media exist in correspondence with the hierarchical file structure. In a file device managed by a directional tree-type hierarchical connection configuration, the connection point information storage means provided separately from the information storage medium and the connection point of the lower information storage medium to the upper information storage medium are connected to each other. And a file management processing unit which is set in the point information storage unit and records and refers to the connection point set in the connection point information storage unit, connection point information for a lower information storage medium corresponding to the connection point. A file device characterized by the above. 2. The file device according to claim 1, wherein, for at least the information storage medium corresponding to the root in the hierarchical connection configuration, a connection point for the information storage medium is set in the connection point information storage means.