Patent ID: 7194478

Claim:
In an operating system of a computer, a process file system for allowing an application program to monitor information pertaining to a plurality of subsystems using a file system paradigm, comprising: a virtual process file system layer that accesses contents of said plurality of subsystems in a content-independent manner; a plurality of content-dependent modules, each of said plurality of subsystems being associated with at least one of said plurality of content-dependent modules, a first content-dependent module of said plurality of content-dependent modules being configured to access a first data structure of a first subsystem of said plurality of subsystems, said content-independent manner being independent of at least one of a content, format, or directory hierarchy of said first data structure; an interface facilitating data exchange between said plurality of content-dependent modules and said virtual process file system layer; and a directory structure table, said directory structure table containing names of said plurality of content-dependent modules, a name of said plurality of content-dependent modules being registered with said directory structure table by respective one of said plurality of content-dependent modules upon initialization of said respective one of said plurality of content-dependent modules, wherein at least one name associated one content-dependent module of said plurality of dependent modules is unknown at registration time and thus registered in said directory structure table as a dynamic name, wherein said plurality of content dependent modules, said interface, and said directory structure table enable said virtual process file system layer of said process file system to access said contents of said plurality of subsystems in said content-independent manner.