A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for tracking a plurality
of objects being stored are disclosed. In an embodiment, this comprises
computing the hash value of the name of each object being stored,
transforming the hash value into a plurality of bytes such that none of
the bytes has the value of a flag used by the system, concatenating the
transformed hashed values into a hint, and storing the hint in an index.
In an embodiment, bytes having the flag value are mapped to an unused
value during the transformation. In an embodiment, the hint is retrieved
from the index and hashed values are transformed back. Mapped values are
restored to the flag values. This allows use of the hint with a system
that uses a flag in the index as an indicator; for example, to indicate
that an endpoint has been reached.