Patent ID: 7844596

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for locating files on a network, said method performed on a computer system and comprising: in response to receiving a request to alter a first name corresponding to a file within a file system to a second name, a file system manager executing on a processor of the computer system dynamically associating said second name to said first name and said file within a file system data structure, which structure comprises one or more alternate name fields associated with said file, including the first name and the second name; in response to an operation that destroys or deletes or removes the file associated with the first name, the file system manager dynamically updating a file destroyed field associated with the file within the file system data structure, wherein the file destroyed field is one field in addition to the one or more alternate name fields associated with said file within the file system data structure; in response to receiving a request for said file, wherein said request includes said first name, the file system manager searching said file system for said file based on said first name; in response to determining said search for said file based on said first name is not successful, the file system manager: dynamically retrieving the associated second name; checking a value of the file destroyed field corresponding to the second name to determine whether or not the file being requested has been removed or destroyed, wherein when the file has been removed, including all copies of the file with the first name and with alternate names and/or locations, the file destroyed field will indicate a negative value, and wherein the file destroyed field indicates a positive value when all copies of the file have not been removed or destroyed; and searching said file system data structure for said file based on said second name associated with the first name on which the search is based; wherein said searching said file system data structure for said file based on said second name further comprises: searching said file system data structure under the one or more alternate name fields; in response to locating said second name within said file system data structure, the file system manager returning said file to fulfill said request; and in response to determining that said file has been removed or destroyed or that said searching said file system data structure for said file based on said second name is not successful at the file system being searched, the file system manager sending said request to a remote server via a network to execute said search for the file on one or more remote databases.