Method, System and Computer Program for Identifying Interpreted Programs Through Class Loading Sequences

• US 20080152071A1
• Filed: 12/21/2007
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Paone, Fabio, Morgia, Claudio, Secomandi, Antonio
• Granted Patent: US 8,516,448 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 377/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/121 Restricting unauthorised execution of programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering

Abstract

A solution (403-481) is proposed for metering the usage of Java programs. For this purpose, each Java program to be metered is associated (406) with a fingerprint defined by a reference sequence of classes that must be loaded for its execution. The sequence of classes that are actually loaded by the JVM is monitored (409-436)—for example, by means of a wrapper for a class loader of the JVM. The sequence of loaded classes is then used to identify (439-475) the Java program in execution (which fingerprint matches this sequence of loaded classes).

Claims

1. A method for metering usage of interpreted programs on a data processing system, each interpreted program being executed under the control of an interpreter, wherein the method comprises the steps of:

associating each one of a predefined plurality of interpreted programs with an indication of at least one reference sequence of actions identifying the interpreted program;

monitoring at least part of the actions performed by the interpreter; and

detecting the usage of each interpreted program in response to a matching of the monitored actions with an associated reference sequence.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the execution of each interpreted program comprises the loading of a plurality of classes, each action comprising the loading of a class.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of monitoring comprises:

intercepting each request of loading a class, being submitted by each interpreted program, by a wrapper for a class loader;

forwarding the request to the class loader to cause the class loader to load the class; and

logging an indication of the loaded class by the wrapper.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the step of logging comprises discarding each loaded class belonging to a predefined set of standard classes.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein each reference sequence comprises a fixed number of actions, and the step of detecting the usage of each interpreted program comprises comparing said fixed number of monitored actions with the reference sequences.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein each action is associated with an identifier, the indication of each reference sequence consisting of a hash value based on the identifiers of the actions of the reference sequence, and wherein the step of comparing comprises:

calculating a further hash of said fixed number of the monitored actions; and

searching the further hash among the hashes of the reference sequences.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of detecting the usage of each interpreted program comprises, for each monitored action, determining a set of eligible ones of the interpreted programs having the associated reference sequences matching the monitored actions, until the eligible interpreted programs consist of at most a single eligible interpreted program.

8. A system for metering usage of interpreted programs, each interpreted program being executed under the control of an interpreter, comprising:

a processor;

a data bus coupled to the processor; and

a computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, the computer-usable medium being coupled to the data bus, the computer program code comprising instructions executable by the processor and configured for;

associating each one of a predefined plurality of interpreted programs with an indication of at least one reference sequence of actions identifying the interpreted program;

monitoring at least part of the actions performed by the interpreter; and

detecting the usage of each interpreted program in response to a matching of the monitored actions with an associated reference sequence.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the execution of each interpreted program comprises the loading of a plurality of classes, each action comprising the loading of a class.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the computer program code comprising instructions for monitoring further comprises instructions configured for:

intercepting each request of loading a class, being submitted by each interpreted program, by a wrapper for a class loader;

forwarding the request to the class loader to cause the class loader to load the class; and

logging an indication of the loaded class by the wrapper.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the computer program code comprising instructions for logging further comprises instructions configured for discarding each loaded class belonging to a predefined set of standard classes.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein each reference sequence comprises a fixed number of actions, and the computer program code comprising instructions for detecting the usage of each interpreted program further comprises instructions configured for comparing said fixed number of monitored actions with the reference sequences.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein each action is associated with an identifier, the indication of each reference sequence consisting of a hash value based on the identifiers of the actions of the reference sequence, and wherein the computer program code comprising instructions for comparing further comprises instructions configured for:

calculating a further hash of said fixed number of the monitored actions; and

searching the further hash among the hashes of the reference sequences.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the computer program code comprising instructions for detecting the usage of each interpreted program further comprises, for each monitored action, instructions configured for determining a set of eligible ones of the interpreted programs having the associated reference sequences matching the monitored actions, until the eligible interpreted programs comprise at most a single eligible interpreted program.

15. A computer-usable medium embodying computer program code for metering usage of interpreted programs, each interpreted program being executed under the control of an interpreter, the computer program code comprising computer executable instructions configured for:

associating each one of a predefined plurality of interpreted programs with an indication of at least one reference sequence of actions identifying the interpreted program;

monitoring at least part of the actions performed by the interpreter; and

detecting the usage of each interpreted program in response to a matching of the monitored actions with an associated reference sequence.

16. The computer usable medium of claim 15, wherein the execution of each interpreted program comprises the loading of a plurality of classes, each action comprising the loading of a class.

17. The computer usable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer program code comprising instructions for monitoring further comprises instructions configured for:

intercepting each request of loading a class, being submitted by each interpreted program, by a wrapper for a class loader;

forwarding the request to the class loader to cause the class loader to load the class; and

logging an indication of the loaded class by the wrapper.

18. The computer usable medium of claim 17, wherein the computer program code comprising instructions for logging further comprises instructions configured for discarding each loaded class belonging to a predefined set of standard classes.

19. The computer usable medium of claim 15, wherein each reference sequence comprises a fixed number of actions, and the computer program code comprising instructions for detecting the usage of each interpreted program further comprises instructions configured for comparing said fixed number of monitored actions with the reference sequences.

20. The computer usable medium of claim 19, wherein each action is associated with an identifier, the indication of each reference sequence consisting of a hash value based on the identifiers of the actions of the reference sequence, and wherein the computer program code comprising instructions for comparing further comprises instructions configured for:

calculating a further hash of said fixed number of the monitored actions; and

searching the further hash among the hashes of the reference sequences.