Patent ID: 7974952

Claim:
A method for tracking file system changes for backup comprising: reviewing a file system in a canonical order, wherein an entry is associated with the file system; providing a current record file, wherein a record includes a set of information associated with a particular file system entry for the file system and the record is associated with the current record file and a sibling offset, wherein the sibling offset indicates a relative offset to a next sibling entry in the record file, wherein the next sibling entry is associated with a directory or file on a same hierarchal level in a same parent directory as the particular file system entry, and the current record file is arranged in the canonical order; comparing the file system entry with the record; in the event that the file system entry does not correspond to the record: including in a scratch file a new record corresponding to the file system entry in the event it is determined that the file system entry does not correspond to the record because the file system entry is new; and not including the record in the scratch file in the event it is determined that the file system entry does not correspond to the record because the record corresponds to a deleted file system entry which is not currently associated with the file system; and merging the current record file with the scratch file in the canonical order to create a new current record file using the sibling offset to copy the record and its children to the new current record file.