Determining support criteria for shared libraries based on their priority levels

• US 8,776,036 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2010
• Issued: 07/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Das, Kushal
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rivera, Anibal
• Application Number:
  US12/953,084
• Publication Number:
  US 20120131538A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,323 Days
• US Class Current: 717/163
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management

Abstract

A mechanism for determining support criteria for shared libraries based on their priority levels is described. A method of embodiments of the invention includes extracting interface provisioning detail relating to interfaces associated with shared libraries provided by an operating system running on a computer system. The interfaces include application binary interfaces (ABIs). The method further includes detecting interface usage detail associated with the interfaces. The interface usage detail is based on a frequency at which one or more interfaces are used by one or more third-party software programs running on the operating system. The method further includes comparing the interface provisioning detail with the interface usage detail to determine an importance level of each shared library, and analyzing comparison results obtained from the comparison. The analyzing includes assigning a priority level to each shared library based on its importance level.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

extracting interface provisioning detail relating to interfaces associated with shared libraries provided by an operating system running on a computer system;

detecting interface usage detail associated with the interfaces, wherein the interface usage detail is in view of a frequency at which the interfaces are used by software programs running on the operating system;

comparing the interface provisioning detail with the interface usage detail to determine an importance level of each of the shared libraries; and

assigning, by a processing device of the computer system in view of the comparing, a priority level to each shared library in the shared libraries in view of the importance level of the shared library.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interfaces further comprise application programming interfaces (APIs).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface provisioning detail comprises a list of the interfaces associated with the shared libraries and metadata providing relevant information about the interfaces in the list.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, to a provider, support criteria policy recommendations regarding the shared libraries, wherein the provider comprises an entity that creates and provides the operating system.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the provider is to customize support criteria for the shared libraries based, at least partially, on the support criteria policy recommendations.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the support criteria are customized based, at least partially, on one or more of customer requests, customer history, user-defined predetermined criteria, anticipated future use of the shared libraries, or historical use of the shared libraries.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the interfaces correspond to operating system functions associated with the shared libraries, wherein the operating system functions relate to one or more of file accesses, networking capabilities, user interface functions, thread management, process management, or common utilities.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the interface usage detail is further in view of a frequency at which the interfaces are used by one or more local software programs that are part of the operating system and independent of one or more third-party software programs.

9. A system comprising:

a host computing device having a memory to store instructions for interface management, and a processing device to execute the instructions, wherein the instructions cause the processing device to;

extract interface provisioning detail relating to interfaces associated with shared libraries provided by an operating system running on a computer system;

detect interface usage detail associated with the interfaces, wherein the interface usage detail is in view of a frequency at which the interfaces are used by software programs running on the operating system;

compare the interface provisioning detail with the interface usage detail to determine an importance level of each of the shared libraries; and

assign, by the processing device of the computer system in view of the comparison, a priority level to each shared library in the shared libraries in view of the importance level of the shared library.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the interfaces further comprise application programming interfaces (APIs).

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the interface provisioning detail comprises a list of the interfaces associated with the shared libraries and metadata providing relevant information about the interfaces in the list.

12. The system of claim 9, further comprising providing, to a provider, support criteria policy recommendations regarding the shared libraries, wherein the provider comprises an entity that creates and provides the operating system.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the provider is to customize support criteria for the shared libraries based, at least partially, on the support criteria policy recommendations.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the support criteria are customized based, at least partially, on one or more of customer requests, customer history, user-defined predetermined criteria, anticipated future use of the shared libraries, or historical use of the shared libraries.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the interfaces correspond to operating system functions associated with the shared libraries, wherein the operating system functions relate to one or more of file accesses, networking capabilities, user interface functions, thread management, process management, or common utilities.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

extracting interface provisioning detail relating to interfaces associated with shared libraries provided by an operating system running on a computer system;

detecting interface usage detail associated with the interfaces, wherein the interface usage detail is in view of a frequency at which the interfaces are used by software programs running on the operating system;

comparing the interface provisioning detail with the interface usage detail to determine an importance level of each of the shared libraries; and

assigning, by the processing device of the computer system in view of the comparing, a priority level to each shared library in the shared libraries in view of the importance level of the shared library.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the interfaces further comprise application programming interfaces (APIs).

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the interface provisioning detail comprises a list of the interfaces associated with the shared libraries and metadata providing relevant information about the interfaces in the list.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising providing, to a provider, support criteria policy recommendations regarding the shared libraries, wherein the provider comprises an entity that creates and provides the operating system.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the interface usage detail is further in view of a frequency at which the interfaces are used by one or more local software programs that are part of the operating system and independent of one or more third-party software programs.