Patent ID: 7596632

Claim:
A method of matching target file data with source file data for delta compression, the method comprising: computing a source signature for each of a plurality of source file data segments, the plurality of source file data segments generated by partitioning a source file; computing a target signature for each of a plurality of target file data segments, the plurality of target file data segments generated by partitioning a target file; generating a plurality of match identifiers, each of the plurality of match identifiers being generated based on a comparison of one of the plurality of source signatures with one of the plurality of target signatures using a prefix matching algorithm, each of the plurality of match identifiers representing a match of data between the target file and the source file, each of the plurality of match identifiers including a triple of information that includes a position of the match in the target file, a position of the match in the source file and a length of the match at the positions of the target file and the source file; and merging at least a first match identifier representing a first match of data and a second match identifier representing a second match of data into a single match identifier of the plurality of match identifiers based at least on a tolerance factor of one byte or greater overlapping the end of the first match of data and the beginning of the second match of data between the target file and the source file.