JPH0520146A - Electronic bulletin board device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To constitute the device so that more data can be stored in a file system by compressing and storing the data quantity of a file in the file system. CONSTITUTION:A file structure converting mechanism 2 is formed by a file structure required for compressing inputted plural files to one file, and also, converts each of its file to a file structure required for compression. A data quantity compressing/restoring mechanism 3 compresses the data quantity of each file, and a file number compressing/restoring mechanism 4 compresses the files to one file and stores it in a file system 1. Data read out of the file system 1 is restored by the data quantity compressing/restoring mechanism 3, and also, the file of its data is restored by the file number compressing/ restoring mechanism 4, converted to an ordinary file structure by the file structure converting mechanism 2, and expanded to an area for reference. Accordingly, the data quantity stored in the file system 1 can be increased.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic bulletin board device for compressing and storing data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, a computer network has been widely constructed, and various electronic bulletin board services are provided on this network. This electronic bulletin board service is
The larger ones have spread on a global scale, and you can read articles from around the world. As the use of this electronic bulletin board has become popular, the number of articles to be posted has increased, and a large amount of computational file system resources for storing the articles have been consumed. The amount of articles flowing is fluctuating every day, and sometimes the articles reach the file size that has been scheduled in advance.In such cases, the articles cannot be received and the important article contents are lost. I may end up doing it.

Generally, articles on an electronic bulletin board are erased after they have been posted for a certain period of time. However, when a large number of articles begin to arrive and the sign that the disk is running short can be seen, the articles posted are erased. The method of shortening the period of and deleting the old articles is adopted. In some electronic bulletin board systems, the free space of the file system of the computer that receives the article is checked, and if the remaining capacity is small, the article is not sent, and the article is sent after the remaining amount reaches a predetermined amount. It has been taken.

[0004]

However, with the method of erasing an article early, the article is often erased even though it has not been read, and the file system of the receiving computer has been deleted. The method of not sending an article when the free space is small causes a problem that the arrival of an article is always delayed on a computer with a small file system capacity. In any case, these methods are only temporary, and the fundamental solution is to increase the amount of disk space allocated to the file system used to store the articles.

In order to increase the disk allocation amount, it is necessary to exchange the disk used for other purposes with the disk used for storing article data among the disks on hand, but this method is considerably used for moving data. This requires time-consuming work, and when the volume of articles and data increases, the number of disks will eventually need to be increased. However, increasing the number of discs requires considerable expense.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and by compressing the amount of data, an electronic bulletin board device capable of storing a larger amount of article data using the same disk capacity. The purpose is to provide.

[0007]

FIG. 1 shows the principle of the first invention. In the figure, 1 is a file system for storing data, 3 is a data amount compression / decompression mechanism for compressing the data stored in the file system 1 and restoring the read data, and 2 is data input to the data amount compression / decompression mechanism 3. This is a file structure conversion mechanism for converting the file structure that needs to be compressed and for converting the restored data output from the data amount compression / restoration mechanism 3 into a normal file structure.

FIG. 2 shows the principle of the second invention. In the figure, 1 is a file system for storing data, 4 is a file number compression and restoration mechanism for compressing a plurality of files stored in this file system 1 into one file, and restoring the read file, 2 is this file number compression and restoration Mechanism 4
This is a file structure conversion mechanism that converts the file input into the file structure into a file structure that requires compression and also converts the restored file output from the file number compression / decompression mechanism 4 into a normal file structure.

FIG. 3 shows the principle of the third invention. In the figure, 1 is a file system for storing data, 4 is a file number compression / restoration mechanism for compressing a plurality of files stored in this file system 1 into one file and restoring the read file, 3 is each data of this file And a data amount compression / decompression mechanism 2 for compressing the data of the file to be read and a file structure conversion mechanism for inputting data to the file number compression / decompression mechanism 4 and data to be input to the data amount compression / decompression mechanism 3. The file is converted to a file structure that requires compression, and the restored file output from the file number compression / restoration mechanism 4 and the restored data output from the data amount compression / restoration mechanism 3 are converted into a normal file structure.

[0010]

The input data is converted into a file structure necessary for compression by the file structure conversion mechanism 2 and compressed by the data amount compression / decompression mechanism 3 to be converted into the file system 1.
Stored in. The data read from the file system 1 is decompressed by the data amount compression / decompression mechanism 3, converted into a normal file structure by the file structure conversion mechanism 2 and expanded into an area for reference. As a result, the amount of data stored in the file system 1 is reduced, and more data can be stored due to the reduction.

A plurality of input files are converted by the file structure conversion mechanism 2 into a file structure necessary for compression into one file, and are compressed into one file by the file number compression / decompression mechanism 4 to be converted into the file system 1. Stored in. The read file is decompressed by the file number compression / decompression mechanism 4, converted into an ordinary file structure by the file structure conversion mechanism 2, and expanded into an area for reference. As a result, the number of files stored in the file system 1 is reduced.

Further, the file structure conversion mechanism 2 makes a file structure necessary for compressing a plurality of input files into one file and converts each data of the file into a file structure necessary for compression. Further, the data read from the file system 1 is restored by the data amount compression / restoration mechanism 3 and the file of the data is restored by the file number compression / restoration mechanism 4 and converted into an ordinary file structure by the file structure conversion mechanism 2. Expand to the area for reference. With this method, the amount of data stored in the file system 1 can be further increased.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the first embodiment of the present invention. When posting an article, the user operates the posting means 11 to post the article. The posted article is stored in the file system 1 of the computer, which will be described later, by the storage mechanism 13. At the same time, the posted article is also passed to the article transmission unit 15 and transferred to another computer using the communication means 16. When an article from another computer is received via the communication means 16, the article is passed to the article receiving unit 14 and further to the storage mechanism 13, and the file system 1
Stored in. Further, at this time, the article receiving unit 14 further passes the received article to the article transmitting unit 15 in order to further transmit the article to the third computer, and the article transmitting unit 15 passes the article to the communication means 16.
Articles are sent to other computers one after another. When referring to an article, the user searches the article in the file system 1 by the reference means 12 and refers to the content of the article.

The data input from the storage mechanism 13 is converted into a file structure that requires data compression by the file structure conversion mechanism 2, and the necessary compression operation is performed by the data amount compression / decompression mechanism 3, and then the file system 1 Stored in. Also, when referencing articles, file system 1
The article data in the above is first decompressed by the data amount compression / decompression mechanism 3 and returned to an ordinary file structure that can be referred to by the reference means 12 by the file structure conversion mechanism 2, and then passed to the reference means 12 to refer to the article. It

Next, a specific example will be described. UNI as a target
An electronic bulletin board system that is standardly used on an OS (operation system) of X (registered trademark of Bell Laboratories AT & T) will be described as an example. As the data amount compression / decompression mechanism 3, COM which is one of UNIX commands
PRESS (for compression) and UNCOMPRESS (for restoration) are used, and as the file number compression / restoration mechanism 4, AR which is also one of UNIX commands is used.

FIG. 5 shows how a normal file system is used. The article data is a newsgroup (ANNOUNC) showing what the content of the article looks like.
It is saved in units of E, GENERAL, MISC). The newsgroup is constructed in a tree structure format as shown in FIG. 5 on the directory structure of the UNIX file system. The article data is created as a single file for each case in the directory corresponding to the news group. For example fne
The article in the newsgroup t.general is / usr / s
A serial number of 1 to 8 is created as a file name under the directory fnet / general under the directory dedicated to electronic bulletin boards called pool / news.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a directory structure when data amount compression is performed. A case where data amount compression / decompression is performed will be described with reference to FIG. Next to the normal fnet / general directory, as shown in (a), fnet / genera
Create a directory named l.compress. fnet / ge
A file users in the neral.compress directory that shows the number of users who are viewing articles in that newsgroup.
Are prepared as shown in (b). If no users refer to articles in this newsgroup, this us
0 is written in the ers file. When you post an article, the article file is created under the directory fnet / general with the serial number as the file name. In the example of FIG. 6, it is assumed that it is created with the name 8. Next, these files are compressed by a data amount compression operation to create a file named 8'as shown in (c),
Store the file in the fnet / general.compress directory mentioned above. After that, if there is no user referring (if the users file is 0), the article data file under the original directory fnet / general is deleted.

FIG. 7 shows a posting algorithm when data amount compression is performed. If there is a post, use fnet /
Create a file called general / 8 (step 21)
. Next, it is checked whether the directory fnet / general.compress exists (step 22), and if it does not exist, it is created (step 23). Then fnet / general.compress /
An 8'file is created and compressed data is stored (step 24). If the users file is 0, there is no one to refer to, so delete the fnet / general / 8 file.

Next, returning to FIG. 6 again, when referring to the article data, first referring to the newsgroup,
The contents of the ers file becomes 1, then the files 1'to 8'are restored to the files 1 to 8 by using the restore function, and these files are placed in the directory fnet / general. After that, the user can read the article data by using the function of the usual electronic bulletin board.

When the second and subsequent users refer to the article data, the contents of the users file are similarly increased by one,
Read the restored files under the directory fnet / general. As the number of users referring to the relevant newsgroup decreases, so does the number written in the users file. Users when the last user stops referrals
The number in the file becomes 0, and the article data placed in the restored form in fnet / general is deleted.

FIG. 8 shows a reference algorithm when data amount compression is performed. If there is a person to refer to, 1 is added to the number of users file (step 31). If the value of the users file is 2 or more, files 1 to 8 have already been restored, but if the value is 1, it has not been restored (step 32).
The files of fnet / general / 1-8 are restored by the restore operation (step 33). Reference is made by one user (step 34), and when it is finished, the number of users is decremented by 1 (step 35). If the value of users is 0, fnet / general / 1-
The file No. 8 is erased (step 37).

Next, a second embodiment will be described. FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the second embodiment. This embodiment is the first
While the embodiment compresses and restores the amount of data, the number of files is restored by compression, and the file number compression / restoration mechanism 4 is replaced with the data amount compression / restoration mechanism 3.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a data structure when the file number compression / restoration method is used. In the fnet / general directory, a file "users" indicating the number of users who refer to the article of the newsgroup is created as shown in (b). If there are no users referencing the articles in this newsgroup, 0 is set in this users file.
Is written.

When you post an article, first use fnet / gene
Article files are created under the directory ral with a serial number as the file name. In the example of FIG. 10, it is created with the name 8. Next, this file is compressed by the number of files compression, the file posted so far is compressed
Add a file named archived as shown in (a). If there is no user who is referring at the end (if the users file is 0), the file 8 in the original article directory is deleted.

FIG. 11 shows a posting algorithm when the number of files is compressed. Fnet / general when the article is posted
A file / 8 is created (step 41), and if the value of users is 0, it is added to the fnet / general / archived file that has been posted so far and is compressed (step 43). Fnet / general /
Eight files are deleted (step 44).

Next, returning to FIG. 10, when referring to the article data, first referring to this newsgroup,
The contents of the users file becomes 1, then fnet / general
Use the restore function to restore the file named / archived 1-8
Restore these files to files fn
Put it in the directory et / general. The user can then read the article directory using the usual electronic bulletin board functions.

The second and subsequent users can increase the contents of the users file by one and read the files already restored under the directory fnet / general. As the number of users browsing the relevant newsgroup decreases, the number written in the users file also decreases, and when the last user stops browsing, the number in the users file becomes 0. Then, the files of fnet / general / 1 to 8 restored under fnet / general are deleted.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a reference algorithm when the number of files is compressed. Us when there is a file referrer
Increase the number of ers files by 1 (step 51) and check if this number is 1 (step 52). If it is 2 or more, files 1 to 8 have already been restored, but if it is 1, fnet / gene
The ral / 1 to 8 files are restored (step 53). Refer to this file (step 54) and when the reference is complete, use
Decrease the number of ers by 1 (step 55) and check if the number of users files is 0 (step 56). If 0, files 1-8
Are compressed to create fnet / general / archived files (step 57) and the fnet / general / 1-8 files are deleted (step 58).

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing the structure of the third embodiment. This embodiment has both the data compression / restoration function of the first embodiment and the file number compression / restoration function of the second embodiment, and each function is as described in each embodiment.

In the above description, the UNIX command is used for the compression / decompression of the amount of data and the compression / decompression of the number of files, but the present invention is not limited to this, and existing compression / decompression tools may be used. Further, when the number of files is compressed to be one, for example, when the files 1 and 2 are combined into one file, the following is performed. Attribute information of file 1 (owner, access right, creation date, capacity, etc.) File 1 body delimiter Attribute information of file 2 Body of file 2 and data amount compression is the data amount of file 1 body and file 2 body Is to compress each.

[0031]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the data amount of a file is compressed in the file system, the number of files is compressed, or both are stored, and a reference request is issued. When it comes, it restores the original data and file, so it is possible to store a lot of data in the file system.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle diagram of a first invention.

FIG. 2 is a principle diagram of a second invention.

FIG. 3 is a principle diagram of a third invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an article data storage structure of an electronic bulletin board system.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an article data structure when data amount compression is performed.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a posting algorithm when data amount compression is performed.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a reference algorithm when data amount compression is performed.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an article data structure when file number compression is performed.

[Fig. 11] Fig. 11 is a diagram illustrating a posting algorithm when the number of files is compressed.

[Fig. 12] Fig. 12 is a diagram showing a reference algorithm in the case of performing file number compression.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 file system 2 File structure conversion mechanism 3 Data size compression / decompression mechanism 4 file number compression / decompression mechanism 11 Posting method 12 Reference means 13 Storage mechanism 14 Article receiver 15 Article sending section 16 Communication means

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A file system (1) for storing data, a data amount compression / decompression mechanism (3) for compressing data stored in this file system (1) and restoring data to be read, and this data amount compression / decompression mechanism. A file structure conversion mechanism (2) for converting the data input to (3) into a file structure that requires compression and for converting the restored data output from the data amount compression / restoration mechanism (3) into a normal file structure. An electronic bulletin board device characterized by being provided. 2. A file system (1) for storing data, and a file number compression / restoration mechanism (4) for compressing a plurality of files stored in this file system (1) into one file and restoring the read file. , A file structure for converting the file input to the file number compression / decompression mechanism (4) into a file structure that requires compression and for converting the restored file output from the file number compression / decompression mechanism (4) into a normal file structure An electronic bulletin board device comprising a conversion mechanism (2). 3. A file system (1) for storing data, and a file number compression / restoration mechanism (4) for compressing a plurality of files stored in this file system (1) into one file and restoring the read file. A data amount compression / decompression mechanism (3) that compresses each data of this file and decompresses the data of the file to be read, and a file input to the file number compression / decompression mechanism (4) and the data amount compression / decompression mechanism (3). The data of the input file is converted into a file structure that requires compression, and the restored file output from the file number compression / restoration mechanism (4) and the restored data output from the data amount compression / restoration mechanism (3) are converted into normal files. An electronic bulletin board device comprising a file structure conversion mechanism (2) for converting a file structure.