Patent ID: 9229940
Filing Date: 2016-01-05
CPC Classification: G06F

Claim Text:
1. A search engine which accesses a plurality of file servers over a network, where each of the file servers stores a plurality of files and, when one of the files in one of the file servers is modified for a first time after a most recent clearing of a respective update list in the one of the file servers, information representative of the modified one of the files is added to the respective update list stored in the one of the file servers, where when the one of the files is modified for a second time after the most recent clearing of the respective update list, the respective update list is not updated, each respective update list being stored by a corresponding one of the file servers and containing information representative of files that have been modified, the search engine comprising: a central processing unit (CPU); memory; and at least one storage device which stores a plurality of indices, where each one of the indices includes information produced from an analysis of one or more of the files in a respective one of the file servers, the indices being accessed by a first computer other than the file servers over the network, wherein the CPU executes processing to: request the respective update list from each of the file servers; receive information from each respective update list of the file servers, thus identifying each file contained in each respective update list; for each file contained in each respective update list, update a corresponding one of the indices with information produced from an analysis of the file, whereby the updating is performed only on those files which have been modified; and clear each update list in the respective file servers, wherein the CPU executes further processing to manage information relating each of the file servers with an export point of the information from the respective update list of each of the file servers used to update the indices, wherein the corresponding export point is received along with the information from the respective update list of each of the file servers, and wherein the plurality of files are identified by one or more filtering criteria on the file servers, the update list identifies those files which have been modified by the one or more filtering criteria, and updating of the indices is made with reference to a specific one of the one or more filtering criteria.