Patent ID: 7315865

Claim:
A method comprising: storing, in a processing system, a tree structure that includes a plurality of information-containing segments for use in facilitating lookups of names in a directory, the plurality of information-containing segments including a plurality of name segments, each of the plurality of name segments storing a name of information stored in the directory, wherein each of the plurality of name segments includes at least one name segment entry, each said name segment entry containing at least a portion of a name of information stored in the directory; grouping the plurality of information-containing segments to form a plurality of subsets of the tree structure, wherein each subset is sized based on an amount of memory that will be required to store a predetermined distillation of information about names in the subset, wherein each said distillation includes a plurality of name information objects, each name information object containing a name segment entry index and a first hash value of a name associated with the name information object, and wherein at least one of the plurality of subsets includes more than one information-containing segment of the plurality of information-containing segments; selecting a subset of the plurality of subsets; creating a distillation of information for names in the selected subset; storing in the memory the distillation of information for names in selected subset; performing a predetermined test on only the selected subset by using only the distillation of information stored in the memory to determine whether there is an error in the processing system; and repeating said selecting, creating, said storing, and said performing, for each of the other subsets of the plurality of subsets of the tree structure.