Systems and methods for filtering file system input and output

1. A method of filtering input/output requests of a computer system, the method comprising:

(a) receiving a plurality of I/O requests from a filter manager of the computer system, the filter manager executing in the system space of an operating system executing on the computer system;

(b) applying a hierarchical rule set to at least a portion of the plurality of I/O requests by a mini-filter executing in the system space of the operating system executing on the computer;

(c) providing, as a set of filtered I/O requests, at least one of the plurality of I/O requests from the mini-filter to an agent executing in user space of the operating system in response to the application of the hierarchical rule set by the mini-filter, the agent being operable to associate meta-data with a set of digital assets identified by the set of filtered I/O requests; wherein non-filtered I/O requests are not associated with meta-data by the agent to reduce overall computational load generated by the filter manager, the mini-filter and the agent; and

(d) applying, by the agent, another hierarchical rule set to one or more of the received I/O requests to generate at least at portion of a digital asset identification tag for that I/O request; and

wherein the agent is further operable to perform an inheritance-based categorization operation on a first digital asset in response to a filtered I/O request of the set of filtered I/O requests from the mini-filter, the inheritance-based categorization operation including application of meta-data identifying same categorization information as that of a second digital asset related to the first digital asset.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the hierarchical rule set comprises an array of rules.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising resolving a conflict among rules of the hierarchical rule set in favor of the highest ordered rule.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising resolving a conflict among rules of the hierarchical rule set in favor of the lowest ordered rule.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the hierarchical rule set comprises at least one rule to exclude an I/O request.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the hierarchical rule set comprises at least one rule to include an I/O request.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the hierarchical rule set is expressed as using the extensible markup language (XML).

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the second digital asset is a file system folder and the first digital asset is a document stored in the file system folder.

9. A system for filtering input/output I/O requests of a computer system, the system comprising:

a processor which, when executing in accordance with a client software, forms:

(a) a filter manager operable to output a plurality of I/O requests;

(b) a mini-filter in communication with the filter manager, the mini-filter being operable to receive at least a portion of the plurality of I/O commands from the filter manager, and apply a hierarchical rule set to the at least a portion of the received I/O commands; and

(c) an agent operable to (i) receive a set of filtered I/O requests from the mini-filter after application of the hierarchical rule set, and (ii) associate meta-data with a set of digital assets identified by the set of filtered I/O requests;

wherein non-filtered I/O requests are not associated with meta-data by the agent to reduce overall computational load generated by the filter manager, the mini-filter and the agent;

wherein the agent applies another hierarchical rule set to one or more of the received I/O requests to generate at least at portion of a digital asset identification tag for that I/O request; and wherein the agent is further operable to perform an inheritance-based categorization operation on a first digital asset in response to a filtered I/O request of the set of filtered I/O requests from the mini-filter, the inheritance-based categorization operation including application of meta-data identifying same categorization information as that of a second digital asset related to the first digital asset.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the hierarchical rules set comprises an array of rules.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the mini-filter resolves a conflict among rules of the hierarchical rule set in favor of the highest ordered rule.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the mini-filter resolves a conflict among rules of the hierarchical rule set in favor of the lowest ordered rule.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the hierarchical rule set comprises at least one rule to exclude an I/O request.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the hierarchical rule set comprises at least one rule to include an I/O request.

15. The system of claim 9 wherein the hierarchical rule set is expressed as using the extensible markup language (XML).

16. The system of claim 9

wherein the second digital asset is a file system folder and the first digital asset is a document stored in the file system folder.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium having executable instructions thereon to filter input/output requests of a computer system, the non-transitory computer readable medium comprising:

(a) instructions to receive a plurality of I/O requests from a filter manager of the computer system, the filter manager executing in the system space of an operating system executing on the computer system;

(b) instructions to apply a hierarchical rule set to at least a portion of the plurality of I/O requests by a mini-filter executing in the system space of the operating system executing on the computer;

(c) instructions to provide the end-user with a graphical user interface when the end-user performs a specified action, the graphical user interface allowing the end-user to create an alias for the at least one tag, the alias associated with the tag and having a second policy; and

(d) instructions to apply, by an agent, another hierarchical rule set to a set of filtered I/O requests to generate a set of a digital asset identification tags for set of filtered I/O requests, wherein the other hierarchical rule set is not applied to non-filtered I/O requests to reduce overall computational load generated by the filter manager, the mini-filter and the agent;

wherein the agent is operable to perform an inheritance-based categorization operation on a first digital asset in response to a filtered I/O request of the set of filtered I/O requests from the mini-filter, the inheritance-based categorization operation including application of meta-data identifying same categorization information as that of a second digital asset related to the first digital asset.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 wherein the instructions to apply the hierarchical rule set comprise instructions to apply an array of rules.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising instructions to resolve a conflict among rules of the hierarchical rule set in favor of the highest ordered rule.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising instructions to resolve a conflict among rules of the hierarchical rule set in favor of the lowest ordered rule.

21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising instructions to apply a hierarchical rule set comprises an instruction to exclude at least one an I/O request.

22. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising instructions to apply a hierarchical rule set comprises an instruction to include at least one an I/O request.

23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising instructions to receive the hierarchical rule set in an extensible markup language (XML).

24. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17

wherein the second digital asset is a file system folder and the first digital asset is a document stored in the file system folder.