Patent ID: 8386443

Claim:
A method comprising: reading file listings from a directory for each file including a first file in the directory; determining, using a processor, that the first file falls within a policy calling for the first file to be optimized; optimizing data of the first file by using the processor, wherein the optimizing of data of the first file includes placing the optimized data for the first file into a suitcase file, wherein the suitcase file includes index information for accessing the first file; creating a symlink and a hardlink to the symlink under a suitcase file directory, wherein the symlink is renamed to an original name of the first file, and wherein the symlink includes a data section that encodes a location of the suitcase file and an index number used to access the index information; receiving a delete command for the first file in the directory, wherein the hardlink to the symlink is created in a laundry directory upon receiving the delete command, wherein the laundry directory is a directory that is read during system cleaning to determine whether the hardlink is present and to read a link count of the hard link, wherein a clean cycle ends when there are no hardlinks present in the laundry directory, and wherein the hardlink is removed upon determining that the link count is two, as a link count of two indicates that the symlink is deleted and the optimized data in the suitcase file should be deleted; and returning a delete status of the first file to an application.