Patent ID: 8195608

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for synchronizing files at one or more nodes, the method comprising: determining a filepath that represents a location at a target node of a file to be synchronized; generating a metadata object associated with the file to be synchronized, the generating a metadata object comprising: generating a target-independent representation of the file location that enables the file to be located at each node where the file is stored, and generating publishing node information that identifies the target node as a publishing node of the metadata object, wherein the generated metadata object comprises the target-independent representation of the file location and the publishing node information; the generating a target-independent representation of the file location comprising: determining whether a shared filepath representation exists for the filepath representing the location of the file at the target node, the shared filepath representation being common to all nodes where the file is stored, and responsive to a determination that the shared filepath representation exists, generating the target-independent representation from the shared filepath representation; publishing the metadata object to a central metadata server to enable access to the file at each node where the file is stored using the target-independent representation; and updating the metadata object associated with the file on the condition that the file is changed at any node where the file is stored, the updating comprising updating the publishing node information to identify the node storing the changed file as the publishing node.