Method and system for versioned file system using structured data representations

摘要

A versioned file system comprises a set of structured data representations, such as XML. In a representative embodiment, at a first time, the interface creates and exports to the data store a first structured data representation corresponding to a first version of the local file system. The first structured data representation is an XML tree having a root element, one or more directory elements associated with the root element, and one or more file elements associated with a given directory element. Upon a change within the file system (e.g., file creation, file deletion, file modification, directory creation, directory deletion and directory modification), the interface creates and exports a second structured data representation corresponding to a second version of the file system. The second structured data representation differs from the first structured data representation up to and including the root element of the second structured data representation. The interface continues to generate and export the structured data representations to the data store, preferably at given “snapshot” times when changes within the file system have occurred. The data store preferably comprises one or more cloud storage service providers. As necessary, a given structured data representation is then used to retrieve an associated version of the file system. In this manner, the versioned file system only requires write-once behavior from the data store to preserve its complete state at any point-in-time.