Initiating corrective action after the occurrence of a program error

• US 6,230,284 B1
• Filed: 04/24/1998
• Issued: 05/08/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Lillevold, Karl O.
• Primary Examiner(s): HUA, LY
• Application Number:
  US09/066,175
• Time in Patent Office: 1,110 Days
• Field of Search: 714/13, 714/15, 714/18, 714/474
• US Class Current: 714/13
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40

Abstract

A program is executed on a first computer. In response to an error being detected in the execution of the program, the computer automatically retrieves revision code stored on another computer to revise the program.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

executing a program on a first computer;

detecting when an error occurs in the execution of the program; and

in response to the detection of the error in the execution of the program, automatically retrieving revision code stored on another computer to revise the program without rebooting the first computer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of detecting includes redirecting a response to an interrupt request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of retrieving includes automatically transmitting a state of the first computer to said another computer.

4. The method of claim 1, including allowing the error to cause a failure of the program.

5. The method of claim 1, including preventing the error from causing a failure of the program.

6. A computer system comprising a computer that includes:

a memory to store a program; and

a microprocessor to;

execute the program,

detect the occurrence of the error in the execution of the program, and in response to the detection of the error in the execution of the program, automatically initiate corrective action to revise the program without rebooting the computer system.

7. The computer system of claim 6, further comprising:

another computer to store revision code for preventing a predetermined error from occurring in the execution of the program,

wherein the microprocessor initiates corrective action by communicating with said another computer to revise the program.

8. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the microprocessor initiates corrective action by:

prompting a user for an input, and

in response to the input, determining whether to contact another computer to revise the program.

9. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the microprocessor detects the occurrence of the error by redirecting a response to an interrupt request.

10. The computer system of claim 6, further comprising:

another computer to store revision code for preventing a predetermined error from occurring in the execution of the program,

wherein the microprocessor initiates corrective action by communicating with said another computer to transfer a state of the first computer to said another computer.

11. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the error causes a failure of the program.

12. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the error does not cause a failure of the program.

13. An article comprising a computer readable storage medium including instructions that cause a computer to:

detect when an error occurs in the execution of a program by the computer; and

in response to the detection of the error in the execution of the program, automatically initiate corrective action to revise the program without rebooting the computer.

14. The article of claim 13, further comprising instructions to cause the computer to initiate the corrective action by automatically retrieving revision code stored on another computer to revise the program.

15. The article of claim 13, further comprising instructions to cause the computer to initiate the corrective action by prompting a user for an input and in response to the input, contacting another computer to retrieve revision code.

16. The article of claim 13, further comprising instructions to cause the detection by causing the computer to redirect a response to an interrupt request.

17. The article of claim 13, further comprising instructions to initiate the corrective action by causing the computer to automatically transmit a state of the computer to another computer.

18. The article of claim 13, wherein the error causes a failure of the program.

19. The article of claim 13, wherein the error does not cause a failure of the program.

20. A method comprising:

executing a program on a first computer;

detecting when an error occurs in the execution of the program; and

in response to the detection of the error in the execution of the program, automatically prompting a user for an input and in response to the input, determining whether to contact another computer to revise the program without rebooting the first computer.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the act of detecting includes redirecting a response to an interrupt request.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

contacting said another computer.

23. The method of claim 20, including allowing the error to cause a failure of the program.

24. The method of claim 20, including preventing the error from causing a failure of the program.