Patent ID: 7962532

Claim:
A method for managing directory quotas in a storage server employing a stateless client/server protocol, the method comprising: generating and maintaining a logical list that identifies directories in a file system employing the stateless client/server protocol, wherein the file system has directory quotas set on the directories; representing each directory in the logical list of directory quotas by a bitmask, wherein each bit in the bitmask represents a directory quota status of a corresponding directory of the file system, the directory quota status of a given directory indicating whether a particular directory quota has been imposed on the given directory, wherein the bitmask representation enables imposition of a nested directory quota at any level of a directory structure of the file system employing the stateless client/service protocol; performing an operation on a file or directory; determining directories to be consulted and/or updated for the operation by looking up bitmask of the file or directory without traversing the directories of the file system; consulting and/or updating quotas of the directories for the operation.