Patent ID: 8117243

Claim:
A method for dynamically instantiating configuration files in a virtual file system, the method comprising: partitioning a software distribution into a universal file system tree and a machine specific file system tree, wherein partitioning includes extracting from the software distribution a set of configuration files specific to each of one or more machines; creating for each of the one or more machines an immutable file system image of the set of configuration files specific to that machine, wherein the immutable file system images are stored in a first computer-readable memory at a first memory location; associating each immutable file system with a virtual file system of the software distribution for one of the machines; and at run-time, forming with a virtualization engine a virtual file structure of the software distribution by interposing at least one immutable file system image with the universal file system tree, wherein a copied set of the configuration files are stored in a second computer-readable memory location and wherein virtual configuration files are associated with the plurality of configuration files stored in the first computer-readable memory location and the set of configuration files stored in the second computer-readable memory location; and with a configuration engine, modifying the set of configuration files stored in the second computer-readable memory location during run-time of the operating system, wherein the virtualization engine virtually replaces the plurality of configuration files stored in the first computer-readable memory location with modified configuration files stored in the second computer-readable memory location during run-time.