US Patent 11061867 Application aware deduplication allowing random access to compressed files

A file is received from a client for storage at a deduplication file system. The file is in an archive file format that is used by an application on the client. The file includes subfiles compressed together in the file according to the archive file format, local headers corresponding to the subfiles, and a central directory used by the application to locate information stored in the file. The file is decompressed to store the subfiles separately. A metadata file is created that describes a structure of the file. The metadata file includes the local headers, central directory, pointers to the subfiles, but does not include the subfiles. The file is presented to the client as a single file having the archive file format. A request from the client is received to read the file and the metadata file is read to return data responsive to the request.