Distributed file system providing a unified name space with efficient name resolution

A distributed file system uses objects to model the behavior of components of the distributed file system. Each object has an associated logical path name and physical address. An aggregation of all the logical path names comprises a distributed name space which can be logically partitioned into domains. Each domain includes a domain folder object which maps logical path names of objects in the domain containing the domain folder object, into addresses in the distributed system where the objects are stored. The addresses of the objects are used to access the objects in order to retrieve information from the distributed system.