Patent ID: 8037113

Claim:
A method implemented in a computer-readable storage medium to process on a processor and to perform the method, comprising: receiving a search to perform against a file system to locate one or more files that conform to search criterion of the search; searching extended file attributes for candidate files on the file system for matches to the search criterion, the extended file attributes are unused metadata of the file system that are customized for use, wherein searching the extended file attributes further includes initially searching a separate list of previously used and successfully submitted search criterion for a match on the received search criterion before preceeding to search the extended file attributes; searching remaining candidate files that lack the search criterion in their extend file attributes and that were modified or added to the file system after a date and time stamp associated with those candidate files that have the search criterion in their extended file attributes; and returning matching files that matched the search criterion either in the extended file attributes of the candidate files or in the remaining candidate files.