Patent ID: 8700584

Claim:
A computer system for managing access to objects of a file system, the computer system comprising: a memory; and a processor in communications with the memory, wherein the computer system is configured to perform a method, said method comprising: invalidating, by a client of the file system, one or more existing open instances of an object of the file system, in response to an inconsistent state of a lock corresponding to the object, wherein existing references to the lock receive an error; requesting another open of the object, said another open to provide another open instance of the object; obtaining, in response to the requesting, a new lock corresponding to the object; and accessing the object using the new lock, wherein the inconsistent lock and the new lock are concurrently maintained in a client cache, until the existing references are dropped, and wherein at least one invalidated existing open instance and the another open instance are concurrently in an open state until the invalidated existing open instances are closed, wherein the inconsistent lock is removed from a data structure of cached entities in the client cache to provide a stand-alone cached entity in the client cache and wherein the data structure comprises a linked list.