Patent ID: 7783665

Claim:
A file sharing system comprising: a processor; a memory; an operating system; a plurality of Virtual Environments (VEs) running under the operating system, each VE contains at least one VE user process running locally on a computer system; a file system containing objects comprising files and folders; at least one dedicated private area in the file system associated with one VE of the VEs and accessible only from the one VE, each area containing at least one of the objects; a plurality of mounting points in the file system, each mounting point providing a view of a shared area and a dedicated private area, each view containing at least one object of the file system; at least one shared object in the file system that is accessible to a plurality of VE user processes through a plurality of views, wherein the dedicated private area of one VE user is not visible in the views of the dedicated private areas of other VE users; and at least one VE user dedicated private area includes an object containing reference data for redirection to contents of the shared object corresponding to the reference data, wherein: when the VE user attempts to modify the shared object, the contents of the shared object is copied to user's private file area and the VE user modifies a corresponding private object instead, the reference data is hidden from the VE user process, the VE user private object is created and modified on an operating system level transparently to the VE user processes through the corresponding view of the VE user dedicated private area, the VE user's private file or directory file comprises metadata associated with the VE user that allows the VE user to access a selected shareable file without copying the selected shareable file into the VE user's private area; and the VE user private file is modified such that a link associated with the selected shareable file points to the copy of the selected shareable file located in the dedicated private area and the link is replaced by the copy of the selected shareable file to which it points.