A system and method for using cached data at a local node after re-opening a file at a remote node in a distributed networking environment

In a distributed environment several data pro­cessing systems are interconnected across a network system (3). A distributed services program installed on the systems in the network allows the processors to access data files (5) distributed across the various nodes (A,B) of the network without regard to the location of the data file in the network. The processing system accessing the file, re­ferred to as the client processing system, utilizes a client cache (12B) within its operating system (11B) to store the data file. Utilizing the client cache minimizes the number of reads and writes that must go over the network (3) to the server processing system where the file physically resides. The system and method of this invention prevents a process in the client processing system from access­ing data in the client cache that has been modified at another node (A) in the network. The blocks of data in the client cache (12B) are tested for validity in the client processing system by using modification times as measured by the server processing system. If the cache data blocks are determined to be valid, the data is accessed from the client cache. If the cache data blocks are determined to be invalid, the data blocks are discarded, and the file is accessed from the server processing system.