METHOD TO SHARE LICENSED APPLICATIONS BETWEEN VIRTUAL MACHINES

• US 20080098391A1
• Filed: 10/20/2006
• Published: 04/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Vallabhaneni, Vasu, Medvedev, Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 8,037,473 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44563 Sharing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105

Abstract

A computer implemented method and computer program product for sharing licensed applications between virtual machines. When an event is intercepted which comprises an attempted access of a file stored in a hard disk of a guest operating system, wherein the file type has no association with any application installed on the guest operating system, an application installed on a host operating system capable of opening the file is identified. An association of the file type with an application on the host operating system is established, and the file is copied from the hard disk of the guest operating system to a temporary location on the host operating system. The file is opened and accessed using the associated application on the host operating system. The file is then copied back to the hard disk of the guest operating system.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for sharing licensed applications between virtual machines, the computer implemented method comprising:

intercepting an event comprising an attempted access of a file stored in a hard disk of a guest operating system, wherein a file type of the file has no association with any application installed on the guest operating system;

responsive to intercepting the event, identifying an application installed on a host operating system capable of opening the file;

establishing an association of the file type with the application on the host operating system;

responsive to establishing the association, copying the file from the hard disk of the guest operating system to a temporary location on the host operating system;

opening the file using the associated application on the host operating system to allow access to the file; and

copying the file back to the hard disk of the guest operating system if content of the file changed while the file was open.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to copying the file back to the hard disk of the guest operating system, performing a cleanup of the host operating system.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the application is identified by viewing file type associations of the host operating system.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the file copied back to the hard disk of the guest operating system is a user-updated file.

5. A computer program product for sharing licensed applications between virtual machines, the computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code tangibly embodied thereon, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code for intercepting an event comprising an attempted access of a file stored on a hard disk of a guest operating system, wherein a file type of the file has no association with any application installed on the guest operating system;

computer usable program code for identifying an application installed on a host operating system capable of opening the file in response to intercepting the event;

computer usable program code for establishing an association of the file type with the application on the host operating system;

computer usable program code for copying the file from the hard disk of the guest operating system to a temporary location on the host operating system in response to establishing the association;

computer usable program code for opening the file using the associated application on the host operating system to allow access to the file; and

computer usable program code for copying the file back to the hard disk of the guest operating system if content of the file changed while the file was open.

6. The computer program product of claim 5, further comprising:

computer usable program code for performing a cleanup of the host operating system in response to copying the file back to the hard disk of the guest operating system.

7. The computer program product of claim 5, wherein the application is identified by viewing file type associations of the host operating system.

8. The computer program product of claim 5, wherein the file copied back to the hard disk of the guest operating system is a user-updated file.