Patent ID: 7970821

Claim:
A non-transitory program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps of a software provider enabling a software-acquiring entity to arrive from an existent first signed piece of code, which is executable on a machine, at a second signed piece of code or at a third signed piece of code, which is executable on the machine, said second and third signed pieces of code having been generated by use of a first software archive generator under use of generation instructions, comprising the step of: providing to said software-acquiring entity a difference code, said difference code comprising the steps necessary to arrive from said first signed piece of code at said second signed piece of code or at a third signed piece of code said steps further including instructions to amend said first signed piece of code so that a signature belonging to said second signed piece of code or said third signed piece of code is the same signature for a corresponding second signed piece of code or third signed piece of code existing at the software provider, said difference code is usable at said software-acquiring entity; and amending using said difference code said first signed piece of code by a second software archive generator to generate said second signed piece of code or said third signed piece of code, whereby said second software archive generator is fed with those generation instructions that were used by said first software archive generator for the generation of both said second signed and third signed pieces of code, wherein for arriving from the first signed piece of code to the third signed piece of code where several difference codes are required, these difference codes are merged to a single difference code to be provided to the software-acquiring entity.