US Patent 7383286 File management system with parent directory search functions

A file management system which locates files with less processing load and provides more sophisticated file management tasks. A file manipulation command causes a file manipulation hander to execute a file system operation, which involves placement of a given file to a specified directory, thus assigning the specified directory as a parent directory of that file. The file placement operation causes a parent directory record manager to define a parent directory record of by setting thereto the file's parent directory identifier. Afterwards, when a parent directory inquiry about a specific file is issued, a parent directory inquiry handler retrieves the parent directory record of the specified file and outputs the identifier of the specified file's parent directory that is contained in the retrieved parent directory record.