Patent ID: 6952823
Filing Date: 2005-10-04
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method of generating a patch file from an old version of data consisting of a series of elements and a new version of data consisting of a series of elements where both the old and new versions of data are stored in a memory and accessible by a data processor, the method comprising the steps of: establishing an alphabet comprising a plurality of letters for processing the old and new versions of data wherein a word consists of a series of elements represented by one or more letters of the alphabet; sorting the old version of data with the data processor alphabetically according to the established alphabet to create a first sorted list of words and maintaining a pointer for each element of the first sorted list of words indicating the element's original location in the old version of data; sorting the new version of data with the data processor alphabetically according to the established alphabet to create a second sorted list of words and maintaining a pointer for each element of the second sorted list of words indicating the element's original location in the new version of data; recursively comparing the first and second sorted lists of words one word at a time for a match of the words; upon finding a match of the words, searching the first and second sorted lists of words again to find the largest sequence of coinciding elements preceding and succeeding the match of words; storing the largest sequence of coinciding elements in a coincidences list; processing the coincidences list to remove duplicative coincidences, creating a refined list of coincidences; sorting the refined list of coincidences by pointer in the new version data, creating a sorted list of coincidences; adding the pointer of each coincidence in the new version data to the largest sequence of coinciding elements, creating an end block list; creating a patch file from the sorted coincidences list and the end block list; and compressing the patch file into a secure, portable compressed archive for distribution.