User driven data pre-fetch

1. A method of providing access to file system information, comprising:

receiving, by a file system client running on a client device an indication that a user input associated with pre-fetching at least metadata pertaining to a file system object has been received, wherein the file system object is stored in a distributed file system;

determining, by one or more processors of the client device, that one or more predefined user inputs or user actions occurred; and

pre-fetching, by the file system client, content data associated with a file system object, wherein the pre-fetching the content data associated with the file system object comprises:

in response to a determination that a user-driven pre-fetch option has been set as active with respect to the file system object recursively downloading folder metadata and content items associated with a folder based at least in part on a user-defined scope of the pre-fetching and storing the folder metadata and content items in a local cache of the client device, wherein the folder metadata and content items are downloaded in response to determining that the one or more predefined user inputs or user actions occurred, and the one or more predefined user inputs or user actions correspond to a context for which a response does not expressly require the folder metadata.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pre-fetching of the content data associated with the file system object further comprises:

in response to a determination that the user-driven pre-fetch option has not been set as active with respect to the file system object, the folder metadata is downloaded in response to an express indication to download the folder metadata or in response to a request for which a response requires the folder metadata.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the scope of the pre-fetching is based at least in part on whether a user-driven pre-fetch option has been set as active or in active.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the scope of the pre-fetching is based at least in part on one or more contexts in response to which pre-fetch of the file system object is to be performed.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining, by one or more processors, that the user-driven pre-fetch option has been set as active with respect to the file system object,

wherein the content data associated with the file system object is pre-fetched in response to at least a determination that the user-driven pre-fetch option has been set as active with respect to the file system object.

6. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

determining, by one or more processors, the predefined one or more user inputs or user actions in response to which pre-fetch of the file system object is to be performed.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predefined one or more user inputs or user actions comprises a drag and drop action performed with respect to a representation of the file system object as displayed in a user interface.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the user interface is provided by an application or tool used to display file system information provided by the file system client.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the file system client is configured to obtain the file system information from a remote file system metadata server.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein pre-fetching the content data comprises requesting the content data from the remote file system metadata server without first receiving an explicit user request for the content data.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the file system object comprises a folder or other logical container.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the contents comprises one or both of subfolders and files associated with the folder or other logical container.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content data comprises a plurality of files or other file system objects and pre-fetching the content data comprises using a plurality of processing threads to download in parallel multiple ones of the files or other file system objects.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the file system client is configured to download only a listing of contents of the file system object in instances in which the user-driven pre-fetch option has not been set.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a context menu option or other control to enable the pre-fetch option to be set.

16. A computer system, comprising:

a storage device configured to store a local cache;

a processor coupled to the storage device and configured to:

receive, via a file system client running on a client device, an indication that a user input associated with pre-fetching at least metadata pertaining to a file system object has been received, wherein the file system object is stored in a distributed file system;

determine that one or more predefined user inputs or user actions occurred; and

pre-fetch, by the file system client, content data associated with a file system object, wherein the pre-fetching the content data associated with the file system object comprises:

in response to a determination that a user-driven pre-fetch option has been set as active with respect to the file system object recursively download folder metadata and content items associated with a folder based at least in part on a user-defined scope of the pre-fetching and store the folder metadata and content items in a local cache of the client device, wherein the folder metadata and content items are downloaded in response to determining that the one or more predefined user inputs or user actions occurred, and the one or more predefined user inputs or user actions correspond to a context for which a response does not expressly require the folder metadata.

17. A computer program product to provide access to file system information, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving, by a file system client running on a client device an indication that a user input associated with creating a local copy of a file system object has been received, wherein the file system object is stored in a distributed file system;

determining, by one or more processors of the client device that one or more predefined user inputs or user actions occurred; and

pre-fetching, by the file system client, content data associated with a file system object, wherein the pre-fetching the content data associated with the file system object comprises:

in response to a determination that a user-driven pre-fetch option has been set as active with respect to the file system object recursively downloading folder metadata and content items associated with a folder based at least in part on a user-defined scope of the pre-fetching and storing the folder metadata and content items in a local cache of the client device, wherein the folder metadata and content items are downloaded in response to determining that the one or more predefined user inputs or user actions occurred, and the one or more predefined user inputs or user actions correspond to a context for which a response does not expressly require the folder metadata.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user input associated with the pre-fetching the at least metadata pertaining to the file system object comprises: a right click on the file system object and a user selection to activate the pre-fetching.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recursively downloading of the folder metadata and the content items associated with the folder comprises using a plurality of processing threads to pre-fetch the folder metadata and the content items from the distributed file system in parallel.