Patent ID: 8612389

Claim:
A method for discovering application configuration files in a system, comprising steps of: obtaining a process identifier assigned by the system of an application in concern running in the system; accessing a communication distance threshold that indicates a degree of relevance as to whether the application in concern communicates directly to other processes or indirectly through an intermediate process to other processes; based on the communication distance threshold indicating that the application in concern communicates within the distance threshold with other processes registering process identifiers assigned by the system for processes in the system that match the communication distance threshold; monitoring application configuration files in the system accessed by process identifier assigned by the system to each of the processes where at least some of the processes are in communication with the process of the application in concern; comparing the obtained process identifier with each of the process identifiers of at least some processes that operating access the respective configuration files in the system; and determining one of the configuration files in the system to be the one of the configuration files of the application in concern, when the obtained process identifier is identical to the process identifier of one of the at least some processes accessing the one of the configuration files in the system.