Patent ID: 6925467

Claim:
A system for updating electronic files comprising byte-level file differencing and updating (FDU) algorithms, wherein the file differencing algorithm of the FDU algorithms is hosted on a first device, the file differencing algorithm: receiving two byte streams including byte streams corresponding to an original file and a new file, wherein the new file includes updated and revised versions of the original file; determining a longest common sub-string (LCS) between the two byte streams and divides each of the two byte streams into sub-streams, wherein a first sub-stream is a prefix and a second sub-stream is a suffix to the respective LCS; recursively determining an LCS and dividing each sub-stream until a size of the sub-streams is less than a pre-specified size and determines a byte-level difference between each of the corresponding sub-streams; defining a protocol for structuring a delta file by using a set of operation codes and a variable length integer format to eliminate redundant information in the delta file; generating the delta file including an operation array that codes the determined byte-level differences, wherein generating comprises merging operations of the operation array to reduce an amount of meta-data; transferring the delta file to a second device via at least one coupling.