A Versatile and User-Oriented Versioning File System

File versioning is a useful technique for recording a history of changes. Applications of versioning include backups and disaster recovery, as well as monitoring intruders' activities. Alas, modern systems do not include an automatic and easy-to-use file versioning system. Existing backup solutions are slow and inflexible for users. Even worse, they often lack backups for the most recent day's activities. Online disk snapshotting systems offer more fine-grained versioning, but still do not record the most recent changes to files. Moreover, existing systems also do not give individual users the flexibility to control versioning policies. We designed a lightweight user-oriented versioning file system called Versionfs. Versionfs works with any file system and provides a host of user-configurable policies: versioning by users, groups, processes, or file names and extensions; version retention policies and version storage policies. Versionfs creates file versions automatically, t...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: FAST
• Authors: Kiran-Kumar Muniswamy-Reddy, Charles P. Wright, Andrew Himmer, Erez Zadok
• Keywords: FAST 2004, File Versioning System, Operating System, User-oriented Versioning File, Versioning