Generating encoded identifications of selected subsets of installed software packages on a client machine

• US 9,009,696 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2010
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Vidal, Seth Kelby, Antill, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Dam, Tuan Q.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wei, Zheng
• Application Number:
  US12/768,330
• Publication Number:
  US 20110265073A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,813 Days
• US Class Current: 717/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for generating encoded identifications of selected subsets of installed software packages on a client machine. A physical or virtual client machine can host a set of installed software packages, including operating system, application, and/or other software. A package manager tracks the set of installed packages and updates available for the installed set. The package manager can be configured to capture an inventory of the installed packages, and generate an encoded identification of one or more selected subsets of the set of hosted or installed packages based on size, timestamp, and/or other attributes of the subsets and/or constituent files. An administrator or other user can for instance select only that subset or subsets related to a certain project, application, user group, or other selection criteria, and generate encoded identifications of those subsets for package updating, network management, and/or other purposes.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying a plurality of software packages currently installed on a client machine;

generating, at the client machine, an encoded identification of a subset of the plurality of software packages, wherein the encoded identification comprises an output of a hash function applied to a set of attributes for each software package in the subset of the plurality of software packages;

communicating the encoded identification from the client machine to a remote management platform; and

receiving, at the client machine, a software package update for at least one of the subset of the plurality of software packages in response to a determination by the remote management platform that a plurality of encoded identifications corresponding to a plurality of client machines encode a particular attribute, wherein the plurality of client machines comprises the client machine, wherein the plurality of encoded identifications comprises the encoded identification generated by the client machine, and wherein the set of attributes comprises the particular attribute encoded by the generated encoded identification.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of attributes comprises at least one of a name of the software package, a version of the software package, an epoch of the software package, a timestamp of the software package, a size of the software package, a name of a file in the software package, a version of the file, a timestamp of the file, or a size of the file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the hash function comprises a hash function based on a value of a text string associated with the set of attributes.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote management platform comprises a package management platform, and wherein the client machine and the subset of the plurality of software packages are identified to the package management platform via the encoded identification of the subset of the plurality of software packages.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the package management platform generates the software package update for the client machine using the encoded identification of the subset of the plurality of software packages.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote management platform comprises a network management platform that initiates network management operations on the client machine using the encoded identification of the subset of the plurality of software packages.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a selection of the subset by at least one of a user input or an automatic selection.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating an update to the encoded identification of the subset of the set of the plurality of software packages based on a detected change in the plurality of software packages installed on the client machine.

9. A system comprising:

a data store, at a client machine, to store a plurality of software packages installed on the client machine; and

a processor, at the client machine, to communicate with the data store to;

identify the plurality of software packages currently installed on the client machine,

generate an encoded identification of a subset of the plurality of software packages, wherein the encoded identification comprises an output of a hash function applied to a set of attributes for each software package in the subset of the plurality of software packages,

communicate the encoded identification from the client machine to a remote management platform, and

receive a software package update for at least one of the subset of the plurality of software packages in response to a determination by the remote management platform that a plurality of encoded identifications corresponding to a plurality of client machines encode a particular attribute, wherein the plurality of client machines comprises the client machine, wherein the plurality of encoded identifications comprises the encoded identification generated by the client machine, and wherein the set of attributes comprises the particular attribute encoded in the generated encoded identification.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the set of attributes comprises at least one of a name of the software package, a version of the software package, an epoch of the software package, a timestamp of the software package, a size of the software package, a name of a file in the software package, a version of the file, a timestamp of the file, or a size of the file.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the hash function comprises a hash function based on a value of a text string associated with the set of attributes.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the remote management platform comprises a package management platform, and wherein the client machine and the subset of the plurality of software packages are identified to the package management platform via the encoded identification of the subset of the plurality of software packages.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the package management platform generates the software package update for the client machine using the encoded identification of the subset of the plurality of software packages.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the remote management platform comprises a network management platform that initiates network management operations on the client machine using the encoded identification of the subset of the plurality of software packages.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is further to receive a selection of the subset by at least one of a user input or an automatic selection.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is further to generate an update to the encoded identification of the subset of the plurality of software packages based on a detected change in the plurality of software packages installed on the client machine.