Methods and apparatus for storage and retrieval of name space information in a distributed computing system

摘要

A distributed computing environment is disclosed which allows a user at one location to access resources at other locations. Each resource in the distributed computing environment is represented as a hierarchical file system. A user or process has a name space comprised of at least one hierarchical file system provided by a connected resource. The distributed computing environment allows a first processor to invoke execution of a processing task by a remote processor. The first processor transmits a representation of its current name space to the remote processor. The remote processor will execute the processing task on a name space modified in accordance with the name space representation received from the first processor. The transmitted representation of the name space associated with the first processor includes at least one dynamic name space modification command, such as those executed by a user after logging into the distributed computing system. A plurality of data structures are provided for storing path information which allows the pathname of a given channel, which represents a file, to be determined. The stored path information allows the hierarchical file tree of a connected file system to be generated.