METHODS FOR MANAGING SOFTWARE PACKAGES USING A VERSION CONTROL SYSTEM

• US 20120144378A1
• Filed: 12/06/2010
• Published: 06/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Shah, Amit
• Granted Patent: US 8,863,114 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment

Abstract

A client version control system (VCS) accesses a remote VCS to retrieve the difference between current metadata stored locally representing a first version of the software packages currently installed and newer metadata representing a second version of the software packages available from a server for distribution, without having to download the entire newer metadata. The client VCS generates the newer metadata based on the current metadata and the difference of the current and newer metadata retrieved from the remote VCS. A package manager coupled to the client VCS to download the second version of the software package from the server based on the newer metadata then installs or updates newer releases of software packages as available from the distribution server.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing software packages, comprising:

accessing, by a client version control system (VCS), a remote VCS to obtain a difference between current metadata stored locally representing some versions of the software packages currently installed or packages available in a repository and newer metadata, if any, representing latest versions of the software packages available from a server for distribution; and

generating, by the client VCS, the newer metadata based on the current metadata and the difference of the current and newer metadata obtained from the remote VCS.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the client VCS only downloads the difference between the current and newer metadata, without having to download the newer metadata from the remote VCS.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising downloading and installing by the package manager software package represented by the newer metadata.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the client VCS is invoked by the package manager via an application programming interface (API) in response to a request for updating the software package.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the client VCS inquires the remote VCS whether there is any new metadata, wherein if there is any new metadata the client VCS fetches the new metadata from the remote VCS, and wherein the package manager determines whether there is any new update to be downloaded based on the new metadata.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

in response to the information identifying the version of the current metadata, the VCS client interrogating with the remote VCS to determine the version of newer metadata available; and

downloading by the VCS client the difference between the current metadata and newer metadata from the remote VCS.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the current metadata and the newer metadata represent different versions of the same metadata managed by the remote VCS.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the current metadata and the newer metadata are stored and managed by the remote VCS in a first server while the software package is provided by a second server.

9. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method for managing software packages, the method comprising:

accessing, by a client version control system (VCS), a remote VCS to obtain a difference between current metadata stored locally representing some versions of the software packages currently installed or packages available in a server repository and newer metadata, if any, representing latest versions of the software packages available from a server for distribution; and

generating, by the client VCS, the newer metadata based on the current metadata and the difference of the current and newer metadata obtained from the remote VCS.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the client VCS only downloads the difference between the current and newer metadata, without having to download the newer metadata from the remote VCS.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises downloading and installing by the package manager a software package represented by the newer metadata.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the client VCS is invoked by the package manager via an application programming interface (API) in response to a request for updating the software package.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the client VCS inquires the remote VCS whether there is any new metadata, wherein if there is any new metadata the client VCS fetches the new metadata from the remote VCS, and wherein the package manager determines whether there is any new update to be downloaded based on the new metadata.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

in response to the information identifying the version of the current metadata, the VCS client interrogating with the remote VCS to determine the version of newer metadata available; and

downloading by the VCS client the difference between the current metadata and newer metadata from the remote VCS.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the current metadata and the newer metadata represent different versions of the same metadata managed by the remote VCS.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the current metadata and the newer metadata are stored and managed by the remote VCS in a first server while the software package is provided by a second server.

17. A data processing system, comprising:

a client version control system (VCS) to access a remote VCS to obtain a difference between current metadata stored locally representing some versions of the software packages currently installed or packages available in a server repository and newer metadata, if any, representing latest version of the software package available from a server for distribution, wherein the client VCS generates the newer metadata based on the current metadata and the difference of the current and newer metadata obtained from the remote VCS; and

a package manager coupled to the client VCS to download the latest version of the software package from the server based on the newer metadata.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the client VCS only downloads the difference between the current and newer metadata, without having to download the newer metadata from the remote VCS.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the package manager is configured to download and install the latest version of the software package.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the client VCS is invoked by the package manager via an application programming interface (API) in response to a request for updating the software package.