Application containers

• US 10,324,734 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2017
• Issued: 06/18/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Kirkpatrick, Ficus
• Primary Examiner(s): Rutten, James D.
• Application Number:
  US15/406,520
• Publication Number:
  US 20170206090A1
• Time in Patent Office: 886 Days
• Field of Search: 717174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/02 Standardisation; Integration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/148 Migration or transfer of sessions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

In some examples, a method includes receiving, by a supervisor component executing at a computing device, a request to execute an application, and determining, by the supervisor component, whether any application container is currently allocated for the application. The method may also include, responsive to determining that an application container is currently allocated for the application: activating, by the supervisory, the application container currently allocated for the application, and executing, by the application container for the application, the application, and, responsive to terminating execution of the application, deactivating, by the supervisor component, the application container for the application.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a supervisor component executing at a computing device, a request to execute an application;

determining, by the supervisor component, whether an application container is currently allocated for the application at the computing device, wherein the application container maintains installable sub-packages of the application, and wherein each installable sub-package of the application includes a respective set of executable components providing a discrete set of functionality for the application;

responsive to determining that the application container is currently allocated for the application at the computing device;

activating, by the supervisor component, the application container currently allocated for the application at the computing device;

executing, by the application container for the application, the application; and

responsive to predicting that additional functionality of the application will be needed, retrieving, by the application container and from a remote computing device, a particular installable sub-package of the application that includes the additional functionality; and

responsive to terminating execution of the application, deactivating, by the supervisor component, the application container for the application at the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to determining that the application container is not currently allocated for the application;

mapping, by the supervisor component, the application container to the application;

activating, by the supervisor component, the application container for the application; and

providing, by the supervisor component and to the application container, an indication of the application.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

responsive to terminating execution of the application, removing, by the supervisor component, the mapping of the application container to the application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the application container is currently allocated for the application comprises:

performing, by the supervisor component, a lookup in a data structure including a mapping of each allocated application container and corresponding application;

responsive to determining that the application is not found in the data structure, determining, by the supervisor component, that the application container is not currently allocated for the application; and

responsive to determining that the application is found in the data structure, determining, by the supervisor component, that the application container is currently allocated for the application.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to receiving the request to execute the application;

determining, by the supervisor component, whether there are any available application containers currently allocated in a memory of the computing device; and

responsive to determining that there are no available application containers currently allocated in the memory, allocating at least one application container in the memory of the computing device,

wherein the application container for the application is allocated in the memory of the computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein deactivating the application container for the application comprises resetting a state of the application container for the application.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein deactivating the application container for the application comprises deallocating the application container for the application from a memory of the computing device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein deactivating the application container for the application comprises removing a mapping of the application container to the application from a data structure stored in a memory of the computing device.

9. A computing device comprising:

one or more storage components that store a supervisor component; and

one or more hardware processors that execute the supervisor component to;

receive a request to execute an application;

determine whether an application container is currently allocated for the application, wherein the application container maintains installable sub-packages of the application, and wherein each installable sub-package of the application includes a respective set of executable components providing a discrete set of functionality for the application; and

responsive to determining that the application container is currently allocated for the application, activate the application container currently allocated for the application, wherein the one or more processors execute the application container to;

execute the application; and

responsive to predicting that additional functionality of the application will be needed, retrieve, from a remote computing device, a particular installable sub-package of the application that includes the additional functionality, and

wherein the one or more processors execute the supervisor component to, in response to the application ceasing execution, deactivate the application container for the application.

10. The computing device of claim 9,

wherein the one or more storage components further store a data structure, and

wherein the one or more hardware processors execute the supervisor component to, responsive to determining that the application container is not currently allocated for the application:

map the application container to the application by at least storing an indication of an association between the application container and application in the data structure;

activate the application container for the application; and

provide, to the application container, an indication of the application.

11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the one or more hardware processors execute the supervisor component to, responsive to terminating execution of the application, remove the mapping of the application container to the application.

12. The computing device of claim 9,

wherein the one or more storage components further store a data structure that includes a mapping of each allocated application container and corresponding application, and

wherein the one or more hardware processors execute the supervisor component to determine whether the application container is currently allocated for the application comprises by at least executing the supervisor component to:

perform a lookup in the data structure;

responsive to determining that the application is not found in the data structure, determine that the application container is not currently allocated for the application; and

responsive to determining that the application is found in the data structure, determine that the application container is currently allocated for the application.

13. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the one or more hardware processors execute the supervisor component to, prior to receiving the request to execute the application:

determine whether there are any available application containers currently allocated in the one or more storage components of the computing device; and

responsive to determining that there are no available application containers currently allocated in the one or more storage components, allocate at least one application container in the memory of the computing device,

wherein the application container for the application is allocated in the one or more storage components of the computing device.

14. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the one or more hardware processors execute the supervisor component to deactivate the application container for the application by at least executing the supervisor component to reset a state of the application container for the application.

15. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the one or more hardware processors execute the supervisor component to deactivate the application container for the application by at least executing the supervisor component to deallocate the application container for the application from the one or more storage components of the computing device.

16. The computing device of claim 9,

wherein the one or more storage components further store a data structure that includes a mapping of each allocated application container and corresponding application, and

wherein the one or more processors execute the supervisor component to deactivate the application container for the application by at least executing the supervisor component to remove a mapping of the application container to the application from a data structure stored in the one or more storage components of the computing device.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing device, cause the one or more processors to:

receive a request to execute an application;

determine whether an application container is currently allocated for the application, wherein the application container maintains installable sub-packages of the application, and wherein each installable sub-package of the application includes a respective set of executable components providing a discrete set of functionality for the application;

responsive to determining that the application container is currently allocated for the application;

activate the application container currently allocated for the application;

execute, using the application container, the application; and

responsive to predicting that additional functionality of the application will be needed, retrieve, from a remote computing device, a particular installable sub-package of the application that includes the additional functionality; and

responsive to terminating execution of the application, deactivate the application container for the application.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

responsive to determining that the application container is not currently allocated for the application;

map the application container to the application;

activate the application container for the application; and

provide, to the application container, an indication of the application.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

perform a lookup in a data structure including a mapping of each allocated application container and corresponding application;

responsive to determining that the application is not found in the data structure, determine that the application container is not currently allocated for the application; and

responsive to determining that the application is found in the data structure, determine that the application container is currently allocated for the application.