Patent ID: 8352501

Claim:
A method comprises: obtaining a directory file that includes a plurality of entries, wherein an entry of the plurality of entries includes a file or directory name field, distributed storage network (DSN) information field, and a snapshot list field; determining a new snapshot identifier (ID) regarding a file; updating the directory file to produce an updated directory file, wherein the updating includes: creating a new entry within the file directory for the file; when one or more of the plurality of entries corresponds to the file, maintaining information of the file or directory name, the DSN information field, and the snapshot list field; for each remaining entry of the plurality of entries, updating the snapshot list field to include the new snapshot ID; dispersed storage error encoding the updated directory file to produce a set of encoded updated directory file slices; and sending the set of encoded updated directory file slices to a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory for storage.