US Patent 7774364 Uniform name space referrals with location independence

Improved techniques are disclosed for accessing content in file systems, allowing file system clients to realize advantages of file system referrals even though a file access protocol used by the client is not specifically adapted for referral objects. (For example, the client may have a legacy file system protocol or a proprietary file system protocol which does not support referrals.) These advantages include a uniform name space view of content in a network file system, and an ability to locate content in a (nearly) seamless and transparent manner, even though the content may be dynamically moved from one location to another or replicated in different locations. A file system server returns a symbolic link in place of a referral, and an automated file mounting process on the client is leveraged to access the content using the link. Built-in crash recovery techniques of the file system client are leveraged to access moved content.