Patent ID: 7979409

Claim:
A computer program product stored on a computer-readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon for processing information about file system resources on a data processing system that supports a kernel that implements file system operations on file system resources, the computer program product comprising: instructions for identifying by a first kernel-level process a file system resource for which the first kernel-level process requires to perform a file system operation; instructions for retrieving by the first kernel-level process unique identifying information for a file system that contains the file system resource, wherein the file system is accessible through the kernel, and wherein a second kernel-level process manages a data structure having an entry for each file system that the kernel recognizes as being currently mounted; instructions for obtaining access to the data structure by the first kernel-level process; instructions for retrieving an automount indicator value for the file system resource; instructions for searching the data structure by the first kernel-level process for an entry having information that matches the unique identifying information in response to a determination that the automount indicator value indicates that the file system that contains the file system resource is an automount file system; instructions for determining if the file system operation requires direct access to the file system resource in response to finding an entry having information that matches the unique identifying information; instructions for determining by the first kernel-level process whether the file system is mounted in response to a determination that the file system operation does not require direct access to the file system resource; instructions for performing the file system operation in response to a determination by the first kernel-level process that the file system is mounted; and instructions for postponing the file system operation in response to a determination by the first kernel-level process that the file system is not mounted.