Patent ID: 7003533

Claim:
A file management method, comprising: recording on a recording medium and managing a distributed object and a metadata file, the metadata file being an individual file comprising information related to the object and used to retrieve, categorize, and organize the object, wherein correspondence between an identifier of the metadata file and an identifier of the object corresponding to the metadata file is managed by a metadata correspondence management file; creating a directory for a package when the object is a package file: recording, on the basis of the directory, a content file contained in the corresponding package and a metadata file corresponding to the content file; assigning to the directory a directory name that corresponds to a package directory number assigned uniquely to the package; managing, with a package management file, correspondence between the package directory number and a package identifier assigned to the package; assigning to the content file and to the metadata file a name that corresponds to a content number assigned in package units when the content file and the metadata file are recorded on the recording medium; managing, with a content file group management file, correspondence between the content number and an identifier of the content file or correspondence between the content number and an identifier of the metadata file; and managing correspondence between an identifier of a content file contained the package and a corresponding identifier of a metadata file, using the metadata correspondence management file.