Patent ID: 8689200

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: at a computer having memory and one or more processors: receiving one or more object code units associated with an executable program; identifying, among the one or more object code units, a first program entity and a first set of operations associated with the first program entity and a second program entity and a second set of operations associated with the second program entity, wherein each program entity has an object code segment and an address of the object code segment and the first set of operations includes at least one reference to the address of the first program entity's object code segment and the second set of operations includes at least one reference to the address of the second program entity's object code segment; when the first program entity's object code segment is identical to the second program entity's object code segment, updating the one or more object code units by generating and inserting a no-operation instruction in an address before the address of the first program entity's object code segment and causing the second set of operations to be associated with the no-operation instruction such that the at least one reference to the address of the second program entity's object code segment in the second set of operations is replaced with the address of the no-operation operation, wherein the no-operation instruction has an address different from the first program entity's address; and combining the updated one or more object code units into the executable program.