Patent ID: 8589363

Claim:
A computer implemented method, comprising: providing a version chain having a plurality of versions of data; selecting a first delta-compressed version and a second delta-compressed version corresponding to a first version of data in the version chain and a second version of data in the version chain, respectively, wherein the second delta-compressed version is configured to depend on the first delta compressed version; the first delta-compressed version is configured to include at least one of a first copy instruction and a first insert instruction; and the second delta-compressed version is configured to include at least one of a second copy instruction and a second insert instruction; generating a third delta-compressed version configured to be independent of at least one of the first delta-compressed version and the second delta-compressed version and further configured to contain at least one third instruction determined based on a predetermined combination of at least one of the following: the first insert instruction, the second insert instruction, the first copy instruction, and the second copy instruction, whereby the third delta-compressed version is configured to be used to retrieve any version in the version chain; wherein the at least one of the providing, the selecting, and the generating is performed on at least one processor; and wherein the at least one third instruction is configured to include at least one parameter, wherein the at least one parameter includes at least one of the following a length parameter defining a length of data to be copied in the uncompressed version of data and an offset parameter defining a location of data to be copied in the uncompressed version of data; and wherein at least one the first and second copy instructions is configured to cause a copy of a data segment into an uncompressed version of data in the version chain, wherein the data segment is present in both a first uncompressed version of data configured to be generated based on the first delta-compressed version and in a second uncompressed version of data configured to be generated based on the second delta-compressed version.