Patent ID: 8812460
Filing Date: 2014-08-19
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for file deduplication in a file system, comprising: an acquisition unit configured to acquire identification information which is newly assigned to a file upon creation or update of the file and is inherited by the file from a different file if the file is a copy of the different file, to thereby make a content of the file identifiable; a determination unit configured to determine whether or not first identification information and second identification information match each other, the first identification information being the identification information acquired by the acquisition unit and assigned to a first file, the second identification information being the identification information acquired by the acquisition unit and assigned to a second file; a control unit configured to perform such control that the first file and the second file are prevented from being stored as duplicate files in the file system, if the determination unit determines that the first identification information and the second identification information match each other; a first registration unit configured to register, in count information, an increase in the number of pieces of identification information associated with the first file, when the second identification information becomes associated with the first file, the count information indicating the number of pieces of identification information associated with the first file; a second registration unit configured to register, in the count information, a decrease in the number of pieces of identification information associated with the first file, in response to an instruction to delete the first management information for managing each file backed up to the file system at the first time point; and a deletion unit configured to delete the first management information in response to the instruction to delete the first management information, and to also delete the first file if the count information after the registration by the second registration unit indicates that no identification information is associated with the first file.