Method and system of managing software conflicts in computer system that receive, processing change information to determine which files and shared resources conflict with one another

• US 7,028,019 B2
• Filed: 11/11/1998
• Issued: 04/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wise Solutions Incorporated (Gen Digital Inc.)
• Inventors: Chirhart, Gary D., McMillan, John J.
• Primary Examiner(s): CHANNAVAJJALA, SRIRAMA T
• Application Number:
  US09/189,559
• Publication Number:
  US 20030014381A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,708 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 3, 707/10, 707202-205, 707100-104, 707/511, 707/200, 717 1- 11, 717175-176, 717/121, 717/174, 713/1, 713/100, 714 25- 27, 714 37- 38, 714 46- 52, 714/7, 709/217, 709/221, 710/104
• US Class Current: 707/691
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44552 Conflict resolution, i.e. enabling coexistence of conflicting executables
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

Method and system for managing software conflicts and a computer-readable storage medium having a program for executing the method is provided wherein a database of interrelated tables is utilized. The invention may be used to manage file and registry conflicts on Windows desk tops. The invention determines information about changes made by applications during their installation into a computer system, one application at a time. Those changes are then compared to determine which files and other shared resources conflict with one another. This conflict information is then used to attempt to resolve software conflicts. Conflicts can be identified at many different levels: files, registries, shortcuts, ODBC drivers, ODBC data sources, service, device, components, autoexec.bat, config.sys, INI changes, and paths. This invention stores all information needed to recreate the installation in the database itself. Thus, when changes (i.e. when conflicts between multiple applications are being resolved) are made to the database, a needed installer for that application can be generated. The database categorizes all file types and breaks the information down into manageable tables of information. These tables relate to each other in an intricate web that allows a thorough illustration of files.

Claims

1. A method of managing software conflicts in a computer system, comprising the steps of:

receiving change information regarding actual changes made to files and other shared resources during installation of different applications into the computer system;

processing the change information to determine conflict information pertaining to which files and shared resources conflict with one another;

storing the conflict information in a database; and

resolving any software conflicts based on the stored conflict information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the conflict information includes DLL file conflict information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the conflict information includes registry conflict information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the conflict information includes shortcut conflict information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the conflict information includes driver conflict information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the conflict information includes data source conflict information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the conflict information includes service conflict information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the conflict information includes device conflict information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the conflict information includes Microsoft Windows Installer component conflict information.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the conflict information includes autoexec.bat conflict information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the conflict information includes config.sys conflict information.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the conflict information includes INI changes conflict information.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the conflict information includes path conflict information.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of resolving any software conflicts includes the step of generating an installer based on the stored conflict information.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the tables has a conflict field for storing a conflict level indication therein.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein two INI files conflict if they have the same path, section and entry.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein two configuration files conflict if they have the same command data and entry data.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein two shortcuts conflict if they have matching desktop-displayable human-readable text associated therewith, a matching location, and a matching icon group, but have either an unmatched path that leads to a program executed by the shortcut, unmatched parameters passed to the program being launched from the shortcut, an unmatched directory within which the launched program is to startup, an unmatched icon number for a particular program, or an unmatched path and filename of a file containing a desktop-displayable icon associated with the shortcut.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein resources are determined to conflict based on installer component GUIDs.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein identical resources are determined to conflict if they have different component GUIDs.

21. The method of claim 1, further including the step of determining the change information.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the database is in the form of interrelated tables.

23. A computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a program which executes the steps of:

receiving change information regarding actual changes made to files and other shared resources during installation of different applications into the computer system;

processing the change information to determine conflict information pertaining to which files and shared resources conflict with one another;

storing the conflict information in a database; and

resolving any software conflicts based on the stored conflict information.

24. The storage medium of claim 23, wherein the program further executes the step of generating an installer for the application.

25. The storage medium of claim 23, wherein the program is further operative to execute the step of determining the change information.

26. The storage medium of claim 23, wherein the database is in the form of interrelated tables.

27. A system for managing software conflicts, comprising:

means for receiving change information regarding actual changes made to a computer system'"'"'s files and other shared resources during installation of different applications into the computer system;

means for processing the change information to determine conflict information pertaining to which files and shared resources conflict with one another;

a database for storing the conflict information; and

means for resolving the software conflicts based on the stored conflict information.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the conflict information includes DLL file conflict information.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the conflict information includes registry conflict information.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein the conflict information includes shortcut conflict information.

31. The system of claim 27, wherein the conflict information includes driver conflict information.

32. The system of claim 27, wherein the conflict information includes data source conflict information.

33. The system of claim 27, wherein the conflict information includes service conflict information.

34. The system of claim 27, wherein the conflict information includes device conflict information.

35. The system of claim 27, wherein the conflict information includes Microsoft Windows Installer component conflict information.

36. The system of claim 27, wherein the conflict information includes autoexec.bat conflict information.

37. The system of claim 27, wherein the conflict information includes config.sys conflict information.

38. The system of claim 27, wherein the conflict information includes INI changes conflict information.

39. The system of claim 27, wherein the conflict information includes path conflict information.

40. The system of claim 27, wherein the means for resolving includes means for generating an installer from the information stored in the database for the at least one application.

41. The system of claim 27, wherein at least one of the tables has a conflict field for storing a conflict level indicator therein.

42. The system of claim 27, further including means for determining the change information.

43. The system of claim 27, wherein the database is in the form of interrelated tables.

44. A method of managing software conflicts in a computer system, comprising the steps of:

receiving change information regarding actual changes made to files and other shared resources during installation of at least one application into the computer system;

processing the change information to determine conflict information pertaining to which files and shared resources conflict with one another, the conflict information including one of a plurality of different conflict severity values;

storing the conflict information in a database; and

resolving any software conflicts based on the stored conflict information.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the plurality of different conflict severity values comprises an informational value and an error value.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the error value indicates a more severe conflict than the informational value.

47. The method of claim 45, wherein the plurality of different conflict severity values further comprises a warning value.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the error value indicates a more severe conflict than the warning value, and wherein the warning value indicates a more severe conflict than the informational value.

49. The method of claim 47, wherein the database of tables includes a file conflict table having records only for files whose conflict value is either the warning value or the error value.

50. The method of claim 44 wherein, if two files have the same destination filename and destination directories, the conflict severity value is derived by:

determining if at least one of a version, an internal version, a date, a time and a size for the two files do not match.

51. The method of claim 44 wherein, if two files are 16-bit executables and have the same destination filename, the conflict severity value is derived by:

determining if at least one of a version, an internal version, a date, a time and a size for the two files do not match.

52. The method of claim 44 wherein, if two files have the same destination filename and destination directories, the conflict severity value is derived by:

determining if the two files have a version, an internal version, a date, a time and a size that match.

53. The method of claim 44, wherein, if two files are 16-bit executables and have the same destination filename, the conflict severity value is derived by:

determining if the two files have a version, an internal version, a date, a time and a size that match.

54. The method of claim 44 wherein, if two files are 16-bit executables and have the same destination filename, the conflict severity value is derived by:

determining if the destination directories for the two files do not match.

55. The method of claim 44 wherein, if two registry files have the same registry path and registry key names, the conflict severity value is derived by:

determining if at least one of a subset of characters of a text name of the registry key, a data type, and an operation for the two registry files do not match.

56. The method of claim 44 wherein, if two ODBC drivers have the same driver name and the same number of bits, the conflict severity value is derived by:

determining if an attribute exists for one of the two ODBC drivers and is non-existent for another of the two ODBC drivers.

57. The method of claim 44 wherein, if two ODBC drivers have the same driver name and same number of bits, the conflict severity value is derived by:

determining if an attribute for one of the two ODBC drivers has a different value than the attribute for another of the two ODBC drivers.

58. The method of claim 44, including at least three conflict severity values.

59. The method of claim 44, wherein the conflict severity value is derived by determining a respective conflict value for each conflict.

60. The method of claim 44, wherein the step of storing the conflict information comprises storing the conflict value in the database.

61. The method of claim 44, wherein the conflict severity values include a warning value and an error value.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein the error value indicates a more severe conflict than the warning value.

63. The method of claim 44, wherein the plurality of different conflict severity values comprises an informational value, a warning value and an error value, wherein the error value indicates a more severe conflict than the warning value, and the warning value indicates a more severe conflict than the informational value, and

for each of two files having the same destination filename:

the conflict value is set to the warning value if destination directories for the two files match or the two files are 16-bit executables, and at least one of a version, an internal version, a date, a time and a size for the two files do not match;

the conflict value is set to the error value if the destination directories for the two files match or the two files are 16-bit executables, and the two files have a version, an internal version, a date, a time and a size which match; and

the conflict value is set to the informational value if the destination directories for the two files do not match and the two files are not 16-bit executables.

64. The method of claim 44, further including the step of determining the change information.

65. The method of claim 44, wherein the database is in the form of interrelated tables.