Patent ID: 8290996

Claim:
In a data processing system having a processor and access to a file storage and file management facility, a processor implemented method comprising: selecting an original inode corresponding to an original file, the original inode having one or more data block address links; creating a clone inode; receiving a name entry and target directory for the clone inode; in response to receiving the name entry, inserting a directory entry containing the name entry into the target directory; initializing the clone inode as a clone parent that is immutable by: copying the one or more data block address links and a header of the original inode to the clone inode; updating a block count of the clone inode to equal the number of data block address links, wherein the block count of the clone inode is a same number of data blocks as is stored in the original inode; setting a link count in the clone inode to two (2); and copying inode time stamps and permission bits of the original inode to the clone inode; and updating an inode map to identify the clone inode as in-use.