Patent ID: 7930327

Claim:
A computer implemented method for obtaining an absolute path name for an open file system object, the computer implemented method comprising: creating, within a kernel, a separate file descriptor table for an opened process from among a plurality of processes with a separate entry in the file descriptor table for storing each file descriptor for each file system object from among a plurality of file system objects opened by the process, with each separate entry pointing to a separate file structure, and with a separate pathname field specified within each separate file structure; responsive to a particular process in a first software partition opening a file system object from a file system stored in a data storage system associated with a first data processing system to form a particular open file system object from among the plurality of file system objects, determining, using a processor, whether a path name received from an application by the particular process for the particular open file system object is an absolute path name; responsive to determining that the path name received by the particular process for the particular open file system object is not an absolute path name, normalizing a relative path name received for the particular open file system object to form the absolute path name; identifying, using a processor, a particular file descriptor for the open file system object; storing the file descriptor for the open file system object in a particular entry in the file descriptor table for the particular process; caching, using the processor, the absolute path name for the particular open file system object in a particular path name field specified within a particular separate file structure associated with the particular entry for the file descriptor for the particular open file system object in the file descriptor table; responsive to a determination that the first software partition is a mobile software partition that is configured to being migrated from the first data processing system to a second software partition different from the first software partition on a second data processing system, retrieving the absolute path name for the particular open file system object from the particular path name field in the particular separate file structure; and saving the absolute path name for the particular open file system object to a state file associated with the first software partition, wherein the absolute path name for the particular open file system object in the state file is used during migration of the first software partition to restore the particular open file system object in the second software partition from the data storage system.