A Logic File System.

Abstract

On the one hand, hierarchical organizations are rigid in the sense that there is only one path to each document. On the other hand, keyword-based search is flexible be-cause many sets of keywords may lead to the same doc-ument, but it lacks a navigation mechanism. We present the new paradigm of a logic file system, which integrates navigation and classification, and the possibility of ex-pressive queries. This paradigm associates logical de-scriptions to files, and logical deduction serves as a ba-sis for navigation and querying; paths are formulas. A key notion is the extension of a logical formula: i.e., the set of all files whose description satisfies the formula. The root directory is determined by formula , and sub-directories of a directory are determined by formulas whose extension strictly intersects the directory exten-sion. This gives a logical ground for considering naviga-tion as computing relevant hints to help refining a query. A prototype implementation demonstrates encouraging performances. 1