ON-DEMAND LOADING OF DYNAMIC SCRIPTING LANGUAGE CODE FOR REDUCED MEMORY USAGE

• US 20160246620A1
• Filed: 02/23/2015
• Published: 08/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: WANG, Haichuan, YE, Handong, WU, Peng
• Granted Patent: US 9,772,865 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/427 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/4434 Reducing the memory space required by the program code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/51 Source to source
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44594 Unloading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45512 Command shells
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45529 Embedded in an application, e.g. JavaScript in a Web browser

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and system for reducing the amount of memory space required to store applications written in dynamic scripting languages loads a program module into memory and removes a category of program code, such as debug information or function definitions, from the program module. The method and system also receives a request for debug information, or a function call or query, and determines whether or not the corresponding program code is in memory. If not, then the location in storage is identified where the program module is stored, and another copy containing the corresponding program code is loaded into memory. The corresponding program code is located and copied into the program module in memory, and a response is provided to the request.

Claims

1. A system for reducing a memory space required to store an application written in a dynamic scripting language, the system comprising:

an input/output device that receives a request corresponding to a segment of program code in a program module in the dynamic scripting language;

an on-demand loader that determines whether or not the segment of program code is in a memory and identifies, in response to having determined the segment of program code is not in the memory, a location in a storage where at least a portion of the program module containing the segment of program code is stored, locates the segment of program code in a second copy of the portion of the program module, and copies the segment of program code into a first copy of the program module in the memory; and

a code loader that loads the second copy of the portion of the program module containing the segment of program code from the storage into the memory.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the code loader further loads the first copy of the program module from the storage into the memory, removes a category of program code from the first copy of the program module and inserts a placeholder into the first copy program module.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the category of program code removed from the first copy of the program module comprises debug information and the request corresponds to the debug information removed from the first copy of the program module.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the category of program code removed from the first copy of the program module comprises a function definition and the request calls or queries the function definition.

5. A method of reducing a memory space required to store an application written in a dynamic scripting language, the method comprising:

receiving, with a processor, a request corresponding to a segment of program code in a program module in the dynamic scripting language;

determining whether or not the segment of program code is in a memory;

identifying, in response to having determined the segment of program code is not in the memory, a location in a storage where at least a portion of the program module containing the segment of program code is stored;

loading a second copy of the portion of the program module containing the segment of program code from the storage into the memory;

locating the segment of program code in the second copy of the portion of the program module; and

copying the segment of program code into a first copy of the program module in the memory.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

loading the first copy of the program module from the storage into the memory;

removing a category of program code from the first copy of the program module; and

inserting a placeholder into the first copy program module.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the category of program code removed from the first copy of the program module comprises debug information and the request corresponds to the debug information removed from the first copy of the program module.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the category of program code removed from the first copy of the program module comprises a function definition and the request calls or queries the function definition.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein loading the first copy of the program module from the storage further comprises downloading the program module from a remote computer system over a network or reading the program module from a local storage.

10. The method of claim 5, further comprising storing the category of program code removed from the first copy of the program module in the storage.

11. The method of claim 5, further comprising compiling the program module into bytecode.

12. The method of claim 5, further comprising executing the program module.

13. The method of claim 5, further comprising employing a compression algorithm on the first copy of the program module.

14. The method of claim 5, further comprising responding to the request.

15. A method of reducing a memory space required to store an application written in a dynamic scripting language, the method comprising:

receiving, with a processor, a request corresponding to a segment of debug information in a program module in the dynamic scripting language;

determining whether or not the segment of debug information is in a memory;

identifying, in response to having determined the segment of debug information is not in the memory, a location in a storage where at least a portion of the program module containing the segment of debug information is stored;

loading a second copy of the portion of the program module containing the segment of debug information from the storage into the memory;

locating the segment of debug information in the second copy of the portion of the program module; and

copying the segment of debug information into a first copy of the program module in the memory.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

loading the first copy of the program module from the storage into the memory;

removing the segment of debug information from the first copy of the program module; and

inserting a placeholder into the first copy program module.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising storing the segment of debug information removed from the first copy of the program module in the storage.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising compiling the program module into bytecode.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising employing a compression algorithm on the first copy of the program module.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising responding to the request.