Patent ID: 6542906
Filing Date: 2003-04-01
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of merging a sequence of delta files that together define a series of changes between a base file and an updated file, each delta file defining one or more changes in terms of one or more unique tokens each identifying original data or of one or more reuse tokens identifying data reused from the immediately preceding delta file or the base file, the method comprising:creating an initial merge structure from the base file and the first delta file in the sequence; creating a further merge structure from the initial merge structure and the next delta file in the sequence by comparing tokens in the initial and further merge structures and replacing reuse tokens in the further merge structure with tokens in the initial merge structure; replacing the initial merge structure with the further merge structure so that the further merge structure becomes the initial merge structure; and repeating the operations of creating a further merge structure and replacing the initial merge structure with the further merge structure, for all delta files in sequence order, whereby the thus created merge structure represents all changes between the base file and the updated file; identifying a file position corresponding.