Patent ID: 8914403

Claim:
A method for managing a virtual machine image, the method comprising: receiving a request to change a package configuration of a machine, the request including an image action; identifying the image action as a Mirage Image Format (MIF); processing the image action received in the request, wherein the processing the image action received includes: opening the image action with associated action inputs corresponding to the MIF; comparing the opened image action inputs with inputs associated with action instances corresponding to the MIF in a database, the comparing performed in response the opening the image action and prior to modifying an image; determining whether the compared opened image action inputs match the inputs associated with action instances in the database; retrieving from the database prior to modifying the image, previously generated image difference data associated with the image action responsive to determining that the compared opened image action inputs match the inputs associated with action instances in the database, the previously generated image difference data generated prior to the opening the image action; and applying the previously generated image difference data to the image in the MIF to transform the image in the MIF; determining whether each image action in the request has been processed; processing a second image action responsive to determining that each image action has not been processed; in response to determining that the compared opened image action inputs do not match the inputs associated with action instances in the database, generating a new image difference data associated with the image action different from the previously generated image difference data without selection from a user; performing the image action on the image to transform the image into a resultant image responsive to determining that the compared opened image action inputs do not match the inputs associated with action instances in the database; determining a difference between the image and the resultant image; and generating image difference data including the difference between the image and the resultant image.