A method and system for reliably performing extra-long operations in a
reliable state-full system (such as a file system). The file system
includes a separate portion of the file system reserved for files having
extra-long operations in progress, including file deletion and file
truncation. This separate portion of the file system is called the zombie
file space; it includes a separate name space from the regular ("live")
file system that is accessible to users, and is maintained as part of the
file system when recording a consistency point.