Patent ID: 7461096

Claim:
A layered computing system for accessing files in a base filesystem, said system comprising: a processor; a data and program storage accessible by said processor, said storage comprising one or more data storage devices; an operating system stored to said storage; computer readable instructions located to said storage, wherein said instructions are executable by said processor to perform functions of: receiving from an application a request to perform a file operation, the request containing a file reference appropriate to the base filesystem, identifying a plurality of enabled layers and, for each of the enabled layers, identifying a priority weight, determining a priority for searching the enabled layers and the base filesystem, the priority based upon each of the priority weights, performing a search for a file object corresponding to the file reference, the search performed in an order determined by the priority, if, in performing the ordered search, the file object is found corresponding to the file reference in one of the enabled layers, returning a virtual file handle to the file object, and if, in performing the ordered search, the file object is found corresponding to the file reference in the base filesystem, returning a base file handle to the file object.