Patent ID: 7444317

Claim:
A method for a filter manager to manage filenames for file system filter drivers, the method comprising: receiving, at a filter manager, an input/output request packet from an application: sending, from the filter manager, a notification to at least one filter driver that indicates that the filter manager has received the input/output request packet; receiving, at the filter manager, a filename request from a first filter driver for a filename within a specified format, wherein the filename request comprises a file object corresponding to an open instance of a file identified by the filename; sending, from the filter manager, a call to a filename provider to generate a filename corresponding to the filename request, wherein the filename provider is determined based on the first filter driver; locating a filename information structure corresponding to the filename request, wherein the filename information structure is located based on the file object and the filename provider; caching the located filename information structure corresponding to the filename received from the filename provider; and sending, from the filter manager to the first filter driver, a pointer that points to the located filename information structure.