Importance

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Abstract

The invention provides a method and system for correct interoperation of multiple diverse file server or file locking protocols, using a uniform multi-protocol lock management system. A file server determines, before allowing any client device to access data or to obtain a lock, whether that would be inconsistent with existing locks, regardless of originating client device or originating protocol for those existing locks. A first protocol enforces mandatory file-open and file-locking together with an opportunistic file-locking technique, while a second protocol lacks file-open semantics and provides only for advisory byte-range and file locking. Enforcing file-locking protects file data against corruption by NFS client devices. A CIFS client device, upon opening a file, can obtain an 'oplock' (an opportunistic lock). When a client device issues a non-CIFS protocol request for the oplocked file, the file server sends an oplock-break message to the CIFS client device, giving the CIFS client device the opportunity to flush any cached write operations and possibly close the file. Allowing NFS and NLM requests to break oplocks ensures that file data remains available to NFS client devices simultaneously with protecting integrity of that file data. A CIFS client device can obtain a 'change-monitoring' lock for a directory in the file system, so as to be notified by the file server whenever there is a change to that directory. The file server notes changes to the directory by both CIFS and non-CIFS client devices, and notifies those CIFS client devices with 'change-monitoring' locks of those changes.

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First Claim