Performing unattended software installation

• US 9,575,739 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2013
• Issued: 02/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bhattiprolu, Sukadev, Jujjuri, Venkateswararao, Myneni, Haren, Naineni, Malahal R, Pulavarty, Badari, Seetharaman, Chandra, Sharoff, Narasimha N
• Primary Examiner(s): Aponte, Francisco
• Application Number:
  US13/787,493
• Publication Number:
  US 20140259008A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,448 Days
• Field of Search: 717/174
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation

Abstract

Systems and computer program products may perform unattended software installation. The systems and computer program products may include receiving a user'"'"'s selection of one or more software installation files, and reading at least a portion of the one or more user-selected software installation files. The systems and computer program products may additionally include extracting, from the read one or more software installation files, questions that a user will be asked to answer during execution of the one or more user-selected software installation files, and compiling the extracted questions. The systems and computer program products may further include prompting a user to provide answers to the compiled questions, and receiving answers to one or more questions of the compiled questions prior to execution of the one or more user-selected software installation files. The systems and computer program products may additionally include storing the received answers, and providing the stored answers when requested during execution of the one or more user-selected software installation files.

Claims

1. A software installation system, comprising:

a processor in communication with memory;

an electronic apparatus in communication with the processor, the electronic apparatus comprising a file server, at least one computer, a set of installation tools, and a database;

the database having at least one previously answered question;

the file server to receive a selection of one or more software installation files for installing software via the set of installation tools, including receiving the selection of a first software installation file for installing first software; and

the set of installation tools to;

initialize unattended installation of the first software prior to execution of the first software installation file, including the set of installation tools to;

extract, from the first software installation file, one or more questions to answer during execution of the first software installation file;

compile the one or more extracted questions;

compare the compiled questions to the previously answered question, wherein the comparison excludes any redundant question from the compiled questions;

store the compiled questions in the database;

issue a first prompt to the computer in order to answer the one or more compiled questions;

receive one or more answers corresponding to the first prompt; and

store the received answers in the database; and

perform the unattended installation of the first software on the computer during execution of the first software installation file, including the set of installation tools to;

provide the stored answers when requested, including the set of installation tools to query the database to obtain the stored answers;

read first dependency data of the first software, wherein the first dependency data relates to a dependency requirement for installing the first software; and

complete installation of the first software on the computer based on the read first dependency data and the stored answers.

2. The software installation system of claim 1 further comprising the computer to download the first software installation file from the file server, wherein the download allows for local installation of the file on the computer.

3. The software installation system of claim 1, further comprising the set of installation tools to read an unread portion of the first software installation file subsequent to storing the received answers.

4. The software installation system of claim 1, wherein compiling the extracted questions further comprises the set of installation tools to identify a first set of questions of the extracted questions that are dependent on answers to a second set of questions of the extracted questions, and further comprising the set of installation tools to:

issue a second prompt to answer the second set of questions;

select less than all questions from the first set of questions based on the answers to the second set of questions; and

issue a third prompt to provide at least one answer to the less than all questions.

8. The software installation system of claim 1, wherein the first dependency data comprises a list of zero or more dependencies, and wherein the installation of the first software is completed in response to determining a presence of all dependencies read from the first dependency data.

9. The software installation system of claim 8, further comprising the set of installation tools to determine an absence of at least one dependency, and to address the absence of the at least one dependency prior to completion of the first software installation.

10. The software installation system of claim 9, wherein each dependency of the dependency data corresponds to a respective package installation, and wherein determining the absence of a dependency comprises determining an absence of an installed package.

11. The software installation system of claim 1, wherein the questions are selected from the group consisting of:

unconditional questions, conditional questions, and a combination thereof.

12. The software installation system of claim 11, wherein the conditional questions are selected from a group consisting of:

dependency-conditional questions, answer-conditional questions, and a combination thereof.

5. A computer program product for performing unattended software installation by an electronic apparatus, the computer program product comprising at least one computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the program code when executed by a processor to:

receive, at a file server of the electronic apparatus, a selection of one or more software installation files view a set of installation tools of the electronic apparatus, including receiving the selection of a first software installation file for installing first software;

initialize unattended installation of the first software prior to execution of the first software installation file, including program code to;

extract, by the set of installation tools, one or more questions from the read first software installation file to answer during execution of the first software installation file;

compile, by the set of installation tools, the one or more extracted questions;

compare, by the set of installation tools, the compiled questions to a previously answered question in a database, wherein the comparison excludes any redundant question from the compiled questions;

store, by the set of installation tools, the compiled questions in the database of the electronic apparatus;

issue, by the set of installation tools, a first prompt to a computer of the electronic apparatus in order to answer the one or more compiled questions;

receive, by the set of installation tools, one or more answers corresponding to the first prompt; and

store, by the set of installation tools, the received answers in the database; and

perform the unattended installation of the first software on the computer during execution of the first software installation file, including program code to;

provide the stored answers when requested during execution of the first software installation file, including program code to cause the set of installation tools to query the database to obtain the stored answers;

read first dependency data of the first software installation file, wherein the first dependency data relates to a dependency requirement for installing the first software; and

complete installation of the first software on the computer based on the read first dependency data.

6. The computer program product of claim 5, further comprising program code to download the first software installation file from the file server, wherein the download allows for local installation of the file on the computer.

7. The computer program product of claim 5, further comprising program code to read, by the set of installation tools, an unread portion of the first software installation file subsequent to storing the received answers.

13. The computer program product of claim 5, wherein the first dependency data comprises a list of zero or more dependencies, and wherein the installation of the first software is completed in response to determining a presence of all dependencies read from the first dependency data.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising program code to determine, by the set of installation tools, an absence of at least one dependency, and to address, by the set of installation tools, the absence of the at least one dependency prior to completion of the first software installation.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein each dependency of the dependency data corresponds to a respective package installation, and wherein determining the absence of a dependency comprises determining an absence of an installed package.

16. The computer program product of claim 5, wherein the questions are selected from the group consisting of:

unconditional questions, conditional questions, and a combination thereof.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the conditional questions are selected from a group consisting of:

dependency-conditional questions, answer-conditional questions, and a combination thereof.

18. The computer program product of claim 5, wherein compiling the extracted questions further comprises program code to identify a first set of questions of the extracted questions that are dependent on answers to a second set of questions of the extracted questions and further comprising program code to:

issue, by the set of installation tools, a second prompt to answer the second set of questions;

select, by the set of installation tools, less than all questions from the first set of questions based on the answers to the second set of questions; and

issue, by the set of installation tools, a third prompt to provide at least one answer to the less than all questions.