| CPC G06F 21/6218 (2013.01) [G06F 16/137 (2019.01); G06F 16/148 (2019.01); G06F 16/172 (2019.01); G06F 16/1774 (2019.01); G06F 2221/2141 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims | 

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               1. A method comprising: 
            generating, by an access control list (ACL) management system, an ACL file containing an ACL that describes one or more access permissions in a file system; 
                storing, by the ACL management system, the ACL file within an ACL directory structure, the ACL file uniquely representing the ACL in the ACL directory structure; 
                generating, by the ACL management system, an ACL identifier for the ACL file; 
                mapping, by the ACL management system and using the ACL identifier, the ACL file to a plurality of data files in the file system to apply the ACL in the ACL file to the plurality of data files, the mapping the ACL file comprising updating a metadata record for each of the plurality of data files to include the ACL identifier; 
                receiving, by the ACL management system, a request to access one or more of the plurality of data files; 
                accessing, by the ACL management system based on the request, the ACL identifier stored at one of the respective metadata records of the one or more data files; and 
                accessing, by the ACL management system using the ACL identifier, a metadata record of the ACL file. 
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