PATCHING OF MULTI-LEVEL DATA CONTAINERS STORING PORTIONS OF PRE-INSTALLED SOFTWARE

• US 20100095289A1
• Filed: 10/13/2008
• Published: 04/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Nguyen, PhiDien Ha, Ganguly, Shamik, Sriram, Vijay Nichinbatl
• Granted Patent: US 8,443,357 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/169
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates

Abstract

A computing system provided according to an aspect of the present invention includes a developer system which sends a set of patches along with metadata in a package. The metadata may include hierarchical paths, with each path indicating a corresponding target (file or archive) which is to be replaced to apply the corresponding patch. A patch tool receives the package and applies the patches using the metadata. According to another aspect of the present invention, a patch tool forms a tree structure based on the hierarchical paths in the metadata. In an embodiment, the tree structure is traversed each time to perform a corresponding patching operation (e.g., backup, and replace). According to yet another aspect of the present invention, only the required archives are unarchived while applying the patches. In an embodiment, the patch tool determines the required archives based on the information in the received metadata.

Claims

1. A method of applying patches to a multi-level data container archived as a file, wherein said multi-level data container contains a plurality of containers and a plurality of files at a plurality of levels in a hierarchical manner, said method comprising:

receiving a set of patches to be applied to said multi-level data container, each of said set of patches being directed to a corresponding one of a set of targets, each target representing a file or container located in one of said plurality of containers;

determining a superset of containers comprised in said plurality of containers, said superset of containers including a root container representing said multi-level data container and a corresponding set of containers in the path from said root container to each of said set of targets;

unarchiving each of said superset of containers to generate corresponding one of a plurality of sets of unarchived files;

applying each of said set of patches to the corresponding one of said set of targets in said sets of unarchived files to generate updated versions of said plurality of sets of unarchived files; and

generating an updated version of said multi-level data container from said updated versions of said plurality of sets of unarchived files,

whereby a number of containers in said superset of containers is less than a number of containers in said plurality of containers if any of said plurality of containers is not required to be unarchived to perform said applying.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a metadata indicating a respective hierarchical path at which each of said targets is present in said multi-level data container, said determining and applying together comprising:

forming a tree from said respective hierarchical paths;

traversing said tree in a traversal order until one said superset of containers and said set of targets is reached;

if one of said superset of containers is reached, unarchiving the reached container; and

if one of said set of targets is reached, performing said applying.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said traversal order is one of said depth first search (DFS) and breadth first search (BFS).

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said applying comprises a backup operation and then an update operation,

wherein each of said backup operation and said update operation is performed by one traversal of said tree.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said the traversal for said backup operation is performed only after a conflict check indicates absence of conflicts in said set of targets.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein said meta data further specifies a list of containers in each of said hierarchical paths, wherein said determining includes the containers of each of said list of containers in forming said superset of containers.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each hierarchical path includes a sequence of parts at corresponding sequence of levels, wherein a part at a last level is a file name of the corresponding target and the remaining ones of said sequence of parts is either one of said list of containers or a corresponding directory name, such that the hierarchical path uniquely identifies the target in said multi-level data container.

8. A machine readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions for causing a system to apply patches to a multi-level data container archived as a file, wherein said multi-level data container contains a plurality of containers and a plurality of files at a plurality of levels in a hierarchical manner, wherein execution of said one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors contained in said system causes said system to perform the actions of:

receiving a set of patches to be applied to said multi-level data container, each of said set of patches being directed to a corresponding one of a set of targets, each target representing a file or container located in one of said plurality of containers;

forming a tree representing a hierarchy in which each of said targets is present in said multi-level data container, said tree containing a root container and a plurality of leaves, wherein each leaf represents one of said set of targets, each path between said root and a corresponding leaf containing a one or more containers and directories, said root container representing said multi-level data container; and

traversing said tree to apply said set of patches to said multi-level data container and to form an updated version of said multi-level data container.

9. The machine readable medium of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving a metadata along with said set of patches from a developer system, said meta data including a set of hierarchical paths, each path identifying a corresponding one of said set of targets,

wherein said forming forms said tree based on said hierarchical paths.

10. The machine readable medium of claim 9, wherein said traversing traverses said tree a first time to perform a backup operation of each of said targets, and then a second time to update each target based on the data contained in the corresponding patch.

11. The machine readable medium of claim 10, wherein said metadata further identifies a list of containers in each of said hierarchical paths, wherein said list of containers for each target equals the containers present in the hierarchical path from the root to the corresponding target, said method comprising:

identifying a set of containers to be unarchived to apply each patch based on the corresponding list of containers;

unarchiving said set of containers; and

applying the corresponding patch to update the corresponding target,

wherein said identifying, unarchiving and applying are performed for each of said targets while traversing said tree in a depth first order.

12. The machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein said metadata is received in the form of Extended Markup Language (XML) and the software instructions in said multi-level data container are in the form of Java programming language.

13. A computing system comprising:

a run-time system storing a pre-installed software in the form of a multi-level data container, said multi-level data container including a plurality of files and a plurality of containers at a plurality of levels such that each of said plurality of files and said plurality of containers is identified by a corresponding hierarchical path;

a developer system to send a package containing a set of patches and a meta-data indicating a set of hierarchical paths, wherein each of said set of hierarchical paths identifies a corresponding one of a set of targets to which a corresponding patch is to be applied; and

a patch tool to receive said package and to apply each of said patches to said multi-level data container by identifying a corresponding target using the corresponding hierarchical path in said meta-data.

14. The computing system of claim 13, wherein said patch tool is operable to:

determine a superset of containers comprised in said plurality of containers, said superset of containers including a root container representing said multi-level data container and a corresponding set of containers in the path from said root container to each of said set of targets;

unarchive each of said superset of containers to generate corresponding one of a plurality of sets of unarchived files;

apply each of said set of patches to the corresponding one of said set of targets in said sets of unarchived files to generate updated versions of said plurality of sets of unarchived files; and

generate an updated version of said multi-level data container from said updated versions of said plurality of sets of unarchived files,

whereby a number of containers in said superset of containers is less than a number of containers in said plurality of containers if any of said plurality of containers is not required to be unarchived to perform said applying.

15. The computing system of claim 14, wherein said patch tool is further operable to receive a metadata indicating a respective hierarchical path at which each of said targets is present in said multi-level data container, to perform said determine and said apply, said patch tool being operable to:

form a tree from said respective hierarchical paths;

traverse said tree in a traversal order until one said superset of containers and said set of targets is reached;

if one of said superset of containers is reached, to unarchive the reached container; and

if one of said set of targets is reached, to perform said apply.

16. The computing system of claim 15, wherein said traversal order is one of depth first search (DFS) and breadth first search (BFS).

17. The computing system of claim 15, wherein said apply comprises a backup operation and then an update operation,

wherein each of said backup operation and said update operation is performed by one traversal of said tree.

18. The computing system of claim 17, wherein said traversal for said backup operation is performed only after a conflict check indicates absence of conflicts in said set of targets.

19. The computing system of claim 15, wherein said meta data further specifies a list of containers in each of said hierarchical paths, wherein said determine operates to include the containers of each of said list of containers in forming said superset of containers.

20. The computing system of claim 19, wherein each hierarchical path includes a sequence of parts at corresponding sequence of levels, wherein a part at a last level is a file name of the corresponding target and the remaining ones of said sequence of parts is either one of said list of containers or a corresponding directory name, such that the hierarchical path uniquely identifies the target in the said multi-level data container.