Patent ID: 6681391
Filing Date: 2004-01-20
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method for generating an Installation_order list for installing software in a computing environment, the computing environment having a configuration defined by a plurality of installed components, the software comprising a plurality of components-to-be-installed, the method comprising:querying the software to discover if a first component from the plurality of components-to-be-installed depends on a second component, the second component being from the plurality of installed components or the plurality of components-to-be-installed; making a dependency entry in an installation relationship matrix, the dependency entry indexed by an identifier corresponding to the first component and an identifier corresponding to the second component, to represent that the first component is dependent on the second component reflecting the requirement that the second component be installed prior to the installation of the first component; evaluating, for at least one of the plurality of components-to-be-installed, an in-degree parameter, the in-degree parameter comprising the number of unprocessed components directly and indirectly dependent on one of the plurality of components-to-be-installed, and wherein, furthermore, no unprocessed component belongs to the Installation_order list selecting an unprocessed component from the plurality of components-to-be-installed, the unprocessed component not being a dependency of any other unprocessed component from the plurality components-to-be-installed; and adding the unprocessed component to the Installation-order list.