A Parallel and Nonblocking Updating Mechanism for Replicated Directory Files in Distributed Systems

This paper presents a new and efficient method for consistency control of replicated directory files. By investigating the special consistency requirements and the data structure of directory files, we design a parallel and nonblocking updating mechanism for the management of directory files. Compared with other consistency control mechanisms, our approach has the following advantages: (1) neither global locking nor globally synchronized clocks are used; (2) updates can be issued at any node without synchronizing with each other; (3) updates from remote nodes are executed as they arrive, without being blocked. The access consistency and correctness of the mechanism are also discussed. © 1994 Academic Press. All rights reserved.