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Abstract

A computer system having data organized in files, having a secondary storage for storing files, having a primary storage, and having one or more types of file subsystems (file system implementations) for controlling transfer of files between primary storage and secondary storage. A subset of writes to secondary storage are performed using a Delayed Ordered Write (DOW) subsystem, which makes it possible for any file system to control the order in which modifications are propagated to disk. The DOW subsystem consists of two parts. The first part is a specification interface, which a file system implementation or any other kernel subsystem can use to indicate sequential ordering between a modification and some other modification of file system structural data. The second part of DOW subsystem is a mechanism that ensures that the disk write operations are indeed performed in accordance with the order store. DOW improves computer system performance by reducing disk traffic as well as the number of context switches that would be generated if synchronous writes were used for ordering.

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First Claim