Method and apparatus for compressing and/or decompressing a data structure

1. A computer-implemented method of compressing a data structure containing data content and further containing at least one content name, using a compression scheme capable of compressing content names only if the content names include characters from a restricted character set, the method comprising:

encoding, by a hardware processor, a content name including a character outside the restricted character set into a representation using characters from the restricted character set,

adding a flag file to a directory of the data structure to flag the data structure as including encoded content names, and

compressing the data structure.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying a data structure including a content name, wherein said identified content name includes a character outside the restricted character set, and

encoding said identified content name.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:

including an encoding identifier in the representation.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the encoding identifier is included in association with encoded portions of the encoded representation.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the data structure comprises a data file and a file name.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the data-structure-includes a directory has as a content name a directory name and contains one or more data files each having, as content name, a file name and further including data content.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6 , further comprising:

identifying a data structure including a content name including a character outside the restricted character set.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7 , further comprising:

encoding each content name associated with the identified data structure.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:

decompressing a compressed data structure, identifying any directory including a flag file and decoding content names associated with the directory.

10. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the data compression scheme comprises zip encoding.

11. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the restricted character set comprises ASCII.

12. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the encoding scheme comprises representing, using restricted character set characters and an encoding identifier, a numerical value attached to each character outside the restricted character set.

13. A computer-implemented method of decompressing a data structure having data content and at least one content name associated with the data content and compressed by a method as claimed in claim 1 , the method comprising:

decompressing, by a hardware processor, a compressed data structure and decoding encoded content names.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13 , wherein a flag file is included in a directory including encoded content names, the method further comprising:

identifying a directory including a flag file, and

decoding only content names associated with the identified directory.

15. An apparatus for compressing a data structure containing data content and further containing at least one content name, using a compression scheme capable of compressing the content names only if the content names include characters from a restricted character set, the apparatus comprising:

a data structure compression module executed by a hardware processor and arranged to encode character names including characters outside the restricted character set into a representation using the restricted character set, add a flag file to a directory of the data structure to flag the data structure as including encoding content names, and compress the data structure.

16. An apparatus for decompressing a data structure having data content and at least one content name associated with the data content, and compressed according to a method as claimed in claim 1 , the apparatus comprising:

a data structure decompression module executed by a hardware processor and arranged to decompress the data structure and decode encoded content names.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to implement the method of claim 1 .