SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATIC UPGRADE AND DOWNGRADE IN PACKAGE UPDATE OPERATIONS

• US 20120079471A1
• Filed: 09/28/2010
• Published: 03/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Vidal, Seth Kelby, Antill, James
• Granted Patent: US 8,806,471 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/169
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for automatic upgrade and downgrade in package update operations. A physical or virtual client machine can host an installed software distribution including a set of installed software packages, such as an operating system, application, and/or other software. A package manager on the client can manage the set of installed packages, and report the installed distribution including version and component packages to one or more package servers. When a distribution upgrade is initiated, the package manager and/or other distribution logic can analyze the target distribution, to determine whether each package in the target distribution represents the most-current version of each component package. Packages which represent the most-current can be installed. Packages which do not represent the most-current version, e.g. due to slippage in vendor updates or versions, can be substituted with a most-current version automatically retrieved from a software repository or other source.

Claims

1. A method for managing package updates, comprising:

receiving a request to perform a distribution upgrade from an installed distribution comprising a first set of software packages installed on a client machine to a target distribution comprising a second set of software packages;

determining a version of each package in the second set of software packages;

determining a most-current version for each package in the second set of software packages;

determining whether when the most-current version of each package in the second set of software packages is a match for an upgrade for the version in the second set of packages;

upgrading each package in the first set of packages to the version of the corresponding package in the second set of packages when the version in the second set of packages is a match for an upgrade for the most-current version; and

downgrading the version of each package in the second set of packages to a most-current version when the version in the second set of packages is not a match for an upgrade of the most-current version.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the installed distribution and the target distribution comprise a pair of distributions having a closest-available version rating.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the installed distribution and the target distribution comprise a pair of distributions having a version rating that differs by more than a closest-available degree.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining a most-current version for each package in the second set of software packages comprises accessing a version reconciliation table recording a most-recent version for packages in the second set of software packages.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the installed distribution or the target distribution is accessed via a software repository.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the determining a version of each package in the second set of software packages, the determining a most-current version for each package in the second set of software packages, or the determining whether when the most-current version of each package in the second set of software packages is a match for an upgrade of the version in the second set of packages is performed by a package manager hosted on the client.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the determining a version of each package in the second set of software packages, the determining a most-current version for each package in the second set of software packages, or the determining whether when the most-current version of each package in the second set of software packages is a match for an upgrade for the version in the second set of packages is performed by a package server remote to the client.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least two packages in the second set of packages are distributed by different vendors.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein downgrading the version of each package in the second set of packages comprises determining that at least one package in the first set of software packages has no corresponding package in the second set of software packages.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a set of reconciled package updates from the installed distribution to the target distribution based on the final set of upgraded and downgraded packages.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising storing the set of reconciled package updates to a software repository.

12. A system for managing package updates performed on a client machine, comprising:

an interface to a data store storing a set of software distributions; and

a processor, configured to communicate with the data store via the interface and to—

receive a request to perform a distribution upgrade from an installed distribution comprising a first set of software packages installed on the client machine to a target distribution comprising a second set of software packages stored in the data store,

determine a version of each package in the second set of software packages,

determine a most-current version for each package in the second set of software packages,

determine whether when the most-current version of each package in the second set of software packages is a match for an upgrade for the version in the second set of packages,

upgrade each package in the first set of packages to the version of the corresponding package in the second set of packages when the version in the second set of packages is match for an upgrade for the most-current version, and

downgrade the version of each package in the second set of packages to a most-current version when the version in the second set of packages is not a match for an upgrade of the most-current version.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the installed distribution and the target distribution comprise a pair of distributions having a closest-available version rating.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the installed distribution and the target distribution comprise a pair of distributions having a version rating that differs by more than a closest-available degree.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the determining a most-current version for each package in the second set of software packages comprises accessing a version reconciliation table recording a most-recent version for packages in the second set of software packages.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the data store comprises a software repository, and the at least one of the installed distribution or the target distribution is accessed via the software repository.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one of the determining a version of each package in the second set of software packages, the determining a most-current version for each package in the second set of software packages, or the determining whether when the most-current version of each package in the second set of software packages is a match for an upgrade of the version in the second set of packages is performed by a package manager hosted on the client.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one of the determining a version of each package in the second set of software packages, the determining a most-current version for each package in the second set of software packages, or the determining whether when the most-current version of each package in the second set of software packages is a match for an upgrade of the version in the second set of packages is performed by a package server remote to the client.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein at least two packages in the second set of packages are distributed by different vendors.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein downgrading the version of each package in the second set of packages comprises determining that at least one package in the first set of software packages has no corresponding package in the second set of software packages.