Forced mount points / duplicate mounts

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11880384-B2
Application number	US-201715857789-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 29, 2017
Priority date	Dec 28, 2017
Publication date	Jan 23, 2024
Grant date	Jan 23, 2024

Abstract

The present technology pertains to a organization directory hosted by a synchronized content management system. The corporate directory can provide access to user accounts for all members of the organization to all content items in the organization directory on the respective file systems of the members' client devices. Members can reach any content item at the same path as other members relative to the organization directory root on their respective client device. In some embodiments novel access permissions are granted to maintain path consistency.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, when executed the instructions are effective to cause a content management system to:
detect a state change of a child namespace, the child namespace is mounted in a first namespace that is a shared namespace shared with two or more user accounts having access rights to the child namespace, wherein the first namespace is associated with at least one of the user accounts, the state change comprising a change between a first access state and a second access state, wherein a restrictive access control list defines the first access state, and the second access state is defined by an access control list that is unmodified by the restrictive access control list, wherein the shared namespace is accessible by the two or more user accounts in a same mount path;
in response to detecting the state change in the child namespace, write a duplicate mount event to a list of synchronization events that is read by a synchronization service, the duplicate mount event being associated with the state change of the child namespace, wherein the duplicate mount event comprises an unmount revision to unmount the child namespace from the first namespace followed by a mount revision that mounts the child namespace at the same mount path, wherein the unmount revision removes all access to the child namespace and its content items at the child namespace, and the mount revision reinstates the child namespace and the content items with the access rights associated with the second access state at the same mount path in the first namespace, wherein access to the content items in the child namespace are updated in accordance with the state change in the child namespace; and
in response to reading the duplicate mount event:
processing the unmount revision to remove access and delete the child namespace and the content items, and
processing the mount revision to add the child namespace and its contents including determining the access rights associated with the second access state.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the list of synchronization events for the child namespace already includes an existing mount event for a folder, wherein the existing mount event is associated with the first access state.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , comprising instructions to cause the content management system to:
determine that a second state change is a change between the second access state and a read-name-only state that only allows a name of the child namespace to be viewed; and
in response to detecting the second state change, write a second duplicate mount event to the list of synchronization events, the second duplicate mount event being associated with the second state change of a folder, wherein when the second state change is from the second access state to the read-name-only state, the folder for the mount revision is an empty folder with the read-name-only state.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , comprising instructions to cause the content management system to:
detect a second change in the access to a second folder from write access to read-only access, or from the read-only access to the write access; and
in response to the detection of the second change in the access to the second folder, synchronize a modification to a read or write access bit for the second folder to a client device.

5. A method comprising:
detecting a state change of a child namespace, the child namespace is mounted in a first namespace that is a shared namespace shared with two or more user accounts having access rights to the child namespace, wherein the first namespace is, associated with at least one of the user accounts, the state change comprising a change between a first access state and a second access state, wherein a restrictive access control list defines the first access state, and the second access state is defined by an access control list that is unmodified by the restrictive access control list, wherein the shared namespace is accessible by the two or more user accounts in a same mount path;
in response to detecting the state change in the child namespace, writing a duplicate mount event to a list of synchronization events that is read by a synchronization service, the duplicate mount event being associated with the state change of the child namespace, wherein the duplicate mount event comprises an unmount revision to unmount the child namespace from the first namespace followed by a mount revision that mounts the child namespace at the same mount path in the first namespace, wherein the unmount revision removes all access to the child namespace and its content items at the child namespace, and the mount revision reinstates the child namespace and the content items with the access rights associated with the second access state at the same mount path in the child namespace, wherein access to the content items in the child namespace are updated in accordance with the state change in the shared namespace; and
in response to reading the duplicate mount event:
processing the unmount revision to remove access and delete the child namespace and the content items, and
processing the mount revision to add the child namespace and its contents including the access rights associated with the second access state.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the writing of the duplicate mount event occurs without changing a directory structure associated with the child namespace.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
detecting a second change in the access to a second folder from a write access to a read-only access, or from the read-only access to the write access; and
in response to the detection of the second change in the access to the second folder, synchronizing a modification to a read or write access bit for the second folder to a client device.

8. A content management system comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory having instructions stored thereon, that when executed the instructions are effective to cause the at least one processor to:
detect a state change of a child namespace, the child namespace is mounted in a first namespace that is a shared namespace shared with two or more user accounts having access rights to the child namespace, wherein the first namespace is associated with at least one of the user accounts, the state change comprising a change between a first access state and a second access state, wherein a-restrictive access control list defines the first access state, and the second access state is defined by an access control list that is unmodified by the restrictive access control list, wherein the shared namespace is accessible by the two or more user accounts in a same mount path;
in response to detecting the state change in the child namespace, write a duplicate mount event to a list of synchronization events that is read by a synchronization service, the duplicate mount event being associated with the state change of the child namespace, wherein the duplicate mount event comprises an unmount revision to unmount the child namespace from the first namespace followed by a mount revision that mounts the child namespace at the same mount path in the first namespace, wherein the unmount revision removes all access to the child namespace and its content items at the child namespace, and the mount revision reinstates the child namespace and the content items with the access rights associated with the second access state at the same mount path in the first namespace, wherein access to the content items in the child namespace are updated in accordance with the state change in the

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Kleinpeter Thomas
• Xu Tony
• Sydell Alex
• Bunger Nils
• Jau Sam
• Staley Aaron
• Lin Sara

Classifications

• G06F16/27 Primary

  Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor · CPC title

• G06F16/11 Primary

  File system administration, e.g. details of archiving or snapshots (error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations G06F11/14) · CPC title

• G06F1/04

  Generating or distributing clock signals or signals derived directly therefrom · CPC title

• G06F3/065

  Replication mechanisms · CPC title

• G06F3/067

  Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title