SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENABLING REMOTE FILE ACCESS VIA A REFERENCE FILE STORED AT A LOCAL DEVICE THAT REFERENCES THE CONTENT OF THE FILE

摘要

A computing system may include multiple computing devices. A file at a computing device may be accessed based on a reference file stored at the device that comprises a hash value of the content of the file. The hash value may be independent of the file location or file name and include a representation of the content of the file such that a given hash value is unique for given content. For example, the hash value may be generated using a hash function on the content of the file. The hash function may be generated by the hash function that reproducibly identifies the file based on the content of the file. In this manner, the reference file may be used to uniquely identify a file as well as serve as a basis for checking the integrity of files transmitted over a network from one computing device to another computing device.

主权项

1. A method for remotely retrieving content regardless of its location by a first content ID reproducibly identifying the content and being calculated from the content using a first algorithm, wherein the method being implemented in a first computing device which stores a first reference file containing the first content ID, and the method comprising:
retrieving the first content ID from the first reference file; sending a content request containing the first content ID to at least one of remote computing devices communicably coupled to the first computing device; and obtaining the content corresponding to the first content ID from at least one of the requested remote computing devices; and wherein the reference file contains a first file type identifier, and the first computing device performs the method to process the first reference file according to the first file type identifier.