TrapperKeeper: The Case for Using Virtualization to Add Type Awareness to File Systems

TrapperKeeper is a system that enables the development of type aware file system functionality. In contrast to existing plug-in-based architectures that require a software developer to write and maintain code for each file type, TrapperKeeper requires no type-specific code. Instead, TrapperKeeper executes existing software applications that already parse the desired file type in virtual machines. It then uses accessibility APIs to control the application and extract desired information from the application's graphical user interface.