Patent ID: 7716262

Claim:
A method of processing an index comprising: receiving (1) a portion of an index that includes metadata associated with a corresponding element in a file system hierarchy and (2) an identifier, wherein: the received portion of the index includes a NODE component and the included metadata includes (1) an mode number of the corresponding element in the file system hierarchy and (2) one or more attributes associated with the corresponding element in the file system hierarchy; there are a plurality of indexes and each of the plurality of indexes is associated with a unique identifier; and a given index has a plurality of portions and all of the plurality of portions for a given index are associated with a same identifier; using a processor to determine whether the received identifier, associated with the index for which the portion is received, is already stored; storing the received portion of the index in a new entry, if it is determined that the received identifier is not already stored; and storing the received portion of the index in the same entry as the stored identifier, if it is determined that the received identifier is already stored.