Generating diffs between archives using a generic grammar

A computing device comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing computer-executable instructions thereupon which, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
• generate, based on a source archive, a source recipe that, when applied to a copy of the source archive, generates a copy of a source payload file from a plurality of source data chunks stored in the copy of the source archive;
• generate a delta recipe that, when applied to the copy of the source payload file, generates a copy of the target payload file;
• generate a target recipe that, when applied to the copy of the target payload file, splits the copy of the target payload file into a plurality of target data chunks and stores the plurality of target data chunks in a copy of the target archive;
• compose the target recipe, the delta recipe, and the source recipe into a composite recipe;
• store the composite recipe in a diff archive;
• and
• transmit the diff archive to a client computing device, causing the client computing device to:
• apply the composite recite of the diff archive to generate the copy of the target archive from the copy of the source archive, and
• install a software update by applying the copy of the target archive.

A system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing computer-executable instructions thereupon which, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform operations comprising:
• receiving a diff archive;
• extracting, from the diff archive, a composite recipe that includes a chunk recipe, a binary delta, and a region recipe, wherein the chunk recipe includes a reference to a data chunk stored in a copy of a source archive;
• applying the chunk recipe to extract the data chunk from the source archive;
• generating a source payload file in part from the extracted data chunk;
• extracting, from the diff archive, the binary delta;
• applying the binary delta to the generated source payload file to generate a target payload file;
• extracting, from the diff archive, the region recipe;
• applying the region recipe to generate a target data chunk from the generated target payload file;
• generating a target archive that stores the target data chunk;
• extracting a copy of the generated target payload file from the target archive;
• and
• installing a software update on a computing device using the extracted copy of the generated target payload file.