A method for deleting obsolete files from a file system is provided. The method includes: receiving a request to delete a reference to a target file in a file system from a file reference data structure, wherein the file reference data structure includes target file names and reference file names; identifying a reference file name in the file reference data structure, wherein the reference file name includes a file name of the target file; deleting a reference file from the file system, wherein the reference file has the identified reference file name; checking whether the file system includes at least one reference file whose file name matches the file name of the target file; if there is no such reference file in the file system: deleting the target file from the file system; and deleting the file name of the target file from the file reference data structure.