VERSION COMPATIBILITY DETERMINATION

• US 20120222025A1
• Filed: 02/25/2011
• Published: 08/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Pandit, Rakesh
• Granted Patent: US 9,483,284 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44552 Conflict resolution, i.e. enabling coexistence of conflicting executables

Abstract

A version compatibility method may identify an interface provided by a first version of an operating system and identify an interface provided by a second version of the operating system. A monitoring module generates difference information between the first version and the second version of the operating system. A compatibility module on a host machine determines, using the difference information, whether a computer application program running on the host machine can resolve an interface dependency if an operating system running on the host machine is changed from the first version to the second version.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a host machine, an installable package, the installable package comprising difference information between a first version of an operating system and a second version of the operating system;

invoking the installable package; and

determining, using the difference information, whether a computer application program running on the host machine can resolve an interface dependency if an operating system running on the host machine is changed from the first version to the second version.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the difference information comprises changes to the interfaces provided by the first version and the second version of the operating system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

invoking the installable package on the host machine in response to a request to change the operating system running on the host machine from the first version to the second version.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

invoking the installable package on the host machine in response to a request to determine whether the computer application program is compatible with the second version of the operating system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the computer application program running on the host machine can resolve the interface dependency comprises:

identifying a library needed by the computer application program; and

determining if there is an interface for the needed library provided by the second version of the operating system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer application program is an independent software vendor (ISV) application.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the installable package is received through an online repository.

8. A system comprising:

a processing device; and

a memory coupled to the processing device, the memory storing a compatibility module, executed from the processor and the memory, the compatibility module configured to;

receive, at a host machine, an installable package, the installable package comprising difference information between a first version of an operating system and a second version of the operating system;

invoke the installable package; and

determine, using the difference information, whether a computer application program running on the host machine can resolve an interface dependency if an operating system running on the host machine is changed from the first version to the second version.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the difference information comprises changes to the interfaces provided by the first version and the second version of the operating system.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the compatibility module is further configured to:

invoke the installable package on the host machine in response to a request to change the operating system running on the host machine from the first version to the second version.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the compatibility module is further configured to:

invoke the installable package on the host machine in response to a request to determine whether the computer application program is compatible with the second version of the operating system.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein determining whether the computer application program running on the host machine can resolve the interface dependency comprises:

identifying a library needed by the computer application program; and

determining if there is an interface for the needed library provided by the second version of the operating system.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the computer application program is an independent software vendor (ISV) application.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the installable package is received through bootable media.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed cause a data processing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving, at a host machine, an installable package, the installable package comprising difference information between a first version of an operating system and a second version of the operating system;

invoking the installable package; and

determining, using the difference information, whether a computer application program running on the host machine can resolve an interface dependency if an operating system running on the host machine is changed from the first version to the second version.

16. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the difference information comprises changes to the interfaces provided by the first version and the second version of the operating system.

17. The storage medium of claim 15, the method further comprising:

invoking the installable package on the host machine in response to a request to change the operating system running on the host machine from the first version to the second version.

18. The storage medium of claim 15, the method further comprising:

invoking the installable package on the host machine in response to a request to determine whether the computer application program is compatible with the second version of the operating system.

19. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein determining whether the computer application program running on the host machine can resolve the interface dependency comprises:

identifying a library needed by the computer application program; and

determining if there is an interface for the needed library provided by the second version of the operating system.

20. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the computer application program is an independent software vendor (ISV) application.