Patent ID: 8849880

Claim:
A system comprising: a non-volatile storage to store a particular directory having files that contain data, wherein the non-volatile storage is to further store metadata associated with the files; at least one processor to form a shadow directory and virtual files that correspond to the files of the particular directory, wherein the virtual files contain a copy of the metadata; and a volatile memory to store the shadow directory and the virtual files, wherein the at least one processor is to form an inode data structure for storing on the volatile memory, wherein the inode data structure comprises: an inode type field that indicates that the inode data structure represents one of a file and a directory, and a sub-type field that indicates a type of an object represented by the inode data structure, wherein the sub-type field is settable to a first value to indicate that the object is a shadow directory, and to another value to indicate that the object is another type, wherein the at least one processor is to: determine, by accessing the sub-type field in the inode data structure, that a given object represented by the inode data structure is the shadow directory, based on detecting the sub-type field set to the first value, and determine, by accessing the inode type field in the inode data structure, that the given object is a directory, based on detecting the inode type field set to a value indicating a directory.