JPH05143643A - File retrieval system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently retrieve a file by reducing the operation request to an auxiliary storage device for file use start declaration from a higher-order program at the time of operating an information processing system. CONSTITUTION:When being informed of file use end declaration from the higher- order program, a file presence confirming means 12 does not initialize existence information in a file existence information storage part 13 but turns on a use end declaration flag. When being informed of file use start declaration, the means 12 retrieves the file existence information storage part 13. When information of the pertinent file exists, the operation is not requested to an auxiliary storage device 17. Thus, the file is efficiently retrieved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a file search method, and more particularly to a file search method in an information processing system to which an auxiliary storage device in which a data file to be stored has a tree structure is connected.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a file search request is issued from a host program, there is a large difference in the time required to complete the search for the corresponding file, depending on how many processing requests are made to the auxiliary storage device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional file search method. As shown in FIG. 3, in the conventional file search method, the command analysis unit 31 that analyzes information passed by a higher-level program that uses the auxiliary storage device 36 and the auxiliary storage device 3 unconditionally to confirm the existence of a file.
6, a file existence confirming means 32 for making a processing request to 6, a data transfer means 33 for transferring information in the file, a file control information storage section 34 for storing information for accessing the file, and a file existence confirming means 32. And the auxiliary storage device 3 directly based on the information of the data transfer means 33.
6 and an adapter 35 for controlling the control unit 6.

In the conventional file control method, the file control information storage unit 34 is initialized when the host program passes a termination declaration to the command analysis unit 31 for a file for which a processing request has been issued previously. Therefore, when the upper program again sends a request to declare the start of use of the same file to the command analysis unit 31 after the end of use declaration of the corresponding file of the upper program, the file existence confirmation means 3
In step 2, the processing request was passed to the auxiliary storage device 36 again. That is, in any case, when the file use declaration is received from the upper program, the access request is passed to the auxiliary storage device 36.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing an example of the operation of the conventional file search method. When the information processing system is actually in operation and the control information of one file is stored in the file control information storage section 34, the command to issue the end-of-use declaration is issued to the file currently used by the upper program. When passed to the analysis unit 31, as shown in FIG. 4, the command analysis unit 31 determines the use end declaration of the file (processing 41, 42) and initializes the control information of the corresponding file in the file control information storage unit 34. (Processing 43). When the use start declaration for the same file is passed from the upper program again, the command analysis unit 31 determines the file use start declaration (processes 41 and 42). Since the file control information is initialized at the time of declaring the use end, the auxiliary storage device 3 is searched for the corresponding file.
The processing request is passed to 6 (processing 44).

Therefore, when a read or write request for the file is passed from the higher-level program, the command analysis section 31 determines the read or write request (step 41), and the data transfer means 33 assists via the adapter 35. Data is transferred by making a processing request to the storage device 36 (processing 45).

In the series of operations of this information processing system, the processing request to the auxiliary storage device 46 is made twice, and it takes time to complete the file search, which is inefficient.

[0008]

According to the conventional file search method described above, when a use start declaration of a file is passed to the command analysis section 31 in accordance with a request from a higher-level program, it is always necessary to assist the presence of the requested file. Storage device 3
The file existence confirming means 32 for passing the processing request to 6 was used. Further, when the upper-level program passes the use end declaration to the file currently used, the file control information transferred to the file control information storage unit 34 is always initialized.

Even when the usage start declaration for the same file is passed again, the existence confirmation request of the corresponding file is passed to the auxiliary storage device 36, so that the number of processing requests to the auxiliary storage device 36 increases and the file search is performed. It has the drawback of taking too much time.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a file storage structure of the auxiliary storage device 36. For the auxiliary storage device 36 having a hierarchical file storage structure as shown in FIG.
When a file is searched, in the conventional file search method, the parent directory 51, the subdirectory 52-1,
When a use start declaration is passed from the upper program to sequentially search the files 53-11 and 53-12, for example, the corresponding file is 53-mn.
When the search is completed, the auxiliary storage device 36
The number of operation requests to be passed to is 1 + m + nm (m = number of subdirectories, n = number of files connected to one subdirectory), which is extremely inefficient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a file search method capable of efficiently searching a file by reducing the operation request to the auxiliary storage device.

[0012]

According to the file search method of the present invention, in a file search method of an information processing system to which an auxiliary storage device for storing data in units of files is connected, a higher-level program that uses the auxiliary storage device passes the data. A command analysis unit that analyzes information, and a file existence confirmation unit that confirms the existence of a file in the auxiliary storage device,
A file presence information storage unit that stores the presence information of the file, a data transfer unit that transfers information in the file, a file control information storage unit that stores information for accessing the file, the file presence confirmation unit, And an adapter for directly controlling the auxiliary storage device based on the information from the data transfer means.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the file search system of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the command analysis unit 11 analyzes information passed by a higher-level program that uses the auxiliary storage device 17. The file existence confirmation unit 12 searches for a file based on the information in the file existence information storage unit 13. At that time, the processing request to the auxiliary storage device 17 is passed only when the file existence information storage unit 13 does not contain information about the file for which the higher-level program declares the use start. File existence information storage unit 1
3 is the auxiliary storage device 1 by the file existence confirmation means 12.
When a processing request is sent to No. 7, the information indicating the existence of the file is received and stored. The data transfer means 14 performs read or write data transfer with respect to a file for which a use start declaration has been made by the upper program. The file control information storage unit 15 stores information for satisfying the access request to the file based on the request of the upper program. The adapter 16 determines the auxiliary storage device 1 based on the information passed by the file existence confirmation means 12 and the data transfer means 14.
Control 7

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an example of the operation of the file search method of this embodiment. In the following, an information processing system to which an auxiliary storage device 17 in which data is stored in units of files is connected is in use, and a start-use declaration has been passed to a single file from a higher-level program. , With the presence information and control information for a file stored in the file presence information storage unit 13 and the file control information storage unit 15, for a single file to which the higher-level program has previously passed the usage start declaration, A process flow of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 2 in the case where the usage end declaration is passed to the command analysis unit 11 and then the usage start declaration is passed to the same file.

The use end declaration of the file passed from the higher-level program is received by the command analysis unit 11, and the end declaration of the file is judged (processes 21 and 22). And
The file existence confirmation means 12 confirms that the file for which the use end declaration has been issued has the use start declaration issued by the upper program first (Processing 2).
7). Here, the file presence confirmation means 12 confirms that the presence information of the file is stored in the file presence information storage unit 13. At this time, the contents of the file existence information storage unit 13 and the information of the corresponding file in the file control information storage unit 15 are not initialized, and the flag indicating that the use end declaration is issued is turned on (Process 2).
8). That is, the existence information itself of the file for which the use end declaration has been issued remains in the file existence information storage unit 23. In the process 27, if the start declaration for the use end declaration has not been made, error processing is performed (process 29).

Next, the flow of processing when the usage start declaration for the file for which the end declaration has just been issued is passed again from the upper program will be explained. The part 11 receives the file and determines the file use start declaration (process 2).
1, 22). Next, by the file existence confirmation means 12,
The information in the file presence information storage unit 13 is searched to confirm that the information regarding the file is stored in the presence information of the file for which the use end declaration flag is ON (processes 23 and 24). That is, in this case, it is confirmed whether or not the corresponding file exists in the auxiliary storage device 17 without a processing request to the auxiliary storage device 17. Therefore, when it exists, the end declaration flag is turned off (process 25), and when it does not exist, the file existence confirmation unit 12 makes a processing request to the auxiliary storage device 17 (process 26).

After that, when a read or write request for the file is passed from the higher-level program, the command analysis section 11 determines the read or write request (step 21), and the data transfer means 14 causes the adapter 16 to transfer the read or write request. Data is transferred by making a processing request to the auxiliary storage device 17 (processing 30).

[0019]

As described above, the file search method of the present invention is an information processing system to which an auxiliary storage device is connected, and reduces the number of processing requests to the auxiliary storage device that affects the performance of the entire system. This has the effect that files can be searched efficiently. Since the structure of the files existing in the auxiliary storage device has a hierarchical structure and the hierarchies are diverse, the operation time of the auxiliary storage device becomes longer accordingly, and the present invention can remarkably exhibit this effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a file search system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an example of the operation of the file search method of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional file search method.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of operation of a conventional file search method.

5 is a diagram showing an example of a file storage structure of an auxiliary storage device 36. FIG.

[Explanation of reference numerals] 11,31 Command analysis unit 12,32 File search means 13 File existence information storage unit 14,33 Data transfer means 15,34 File control information storage unit 16,35 Adapter 17,36 Auxiliary storage device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a file search method of an information processing system to which an auxiliary storage device for storing data in file units is connected, a command analysis unit for analyzing information passed by a higher-order program using the auxiliary storage device, and the auxiliary storage device. A file existence confirmation means for confirming the existence of the file in the device, a file existence information storage section for storing the existence information of the file, a data transfer means for transferring the in-file information, and information for accessing the file are provided. A file search method comprising: a file control information storage unit for storing the data; and an adapter for directly controlling the auxiliary storage device based on the information from the file existence confirmation unit and the data transfer unit.