US 5,317,722 A · Dynamically adapting multiple versions on system commands to a single operating system

Abstract

Multiple versions of a given system command are run on a single operating system by using one command processing program per command irrespective of its version. Each version of the command has a command definition which has the same format for all counterparts of the command. A command analyzer program transforms the parameters of a command character string into the correct data form for its command processing program based on the command definition for that version of the command. Multiple sets of command definitions are placed in separate storage directories called libraries. The libraries are searched based on a version identifier to find the command definition for a command. The version identifier may be specified as a program attribute, entered interactively or entered by the system. Multiple programs written with different versions of commands may be run in conjunction with each other and the system will dynamically adapt to the version of each program as it is running. Also more than one command definition library may be searched to process a command. Therefore, commands written in various versions may be embedded in the same program and the system will dynamically adapt to multiple versions of commands in a program.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A computer system for executing user programs having different versions of system commands, the computer system comprising:

a command execution means for executing system commands having a format common to all versions;
a library for storing a first version of system commands in the common format;
a library for storing a second version of system commands in the common format;
means for searching said libraries while executing said user programs for system commands invoked by the user programs;
means responsive to the user program for determining the sequence in which said libraries are searched while executing the user program;
said command execution means coupled to receive commands from said libraries for executing common format system commands invoked by said user programs, wherein both version of system commands are executed by the same command execution program executing the respective common format of each system command without regard to the version of the system command invoked by the user program.

3 more elements

A method for executing a plurality of system commands written in differing versions of a computer's operating system, aid method comprising the steps of:

defining a set of system commands in a universal format, wherein each system command on any version of the operating system has a counterpart system command in said set, and wherein at least one command in said set is the counterpart of more than one command in different versions of the operating system;
invoking a system command to be executed;
determining the version of the operating system in which the command to be executed is written, said determining step being performed in response to said invoking step;
transforming the command character string of the command to be executed with a command analyzer into a character string constituting the counterpart of said command in said set of commands in a universal format, said command analyzer being responsive to the version of the operating system in which said command is written, said transforming step being performed after said invoking step;
and
executing the command character string constituting the counterpart of said command to be executed in said set of commands in a universal format.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Dynamically adapting multiple versions on system commands to a single operating system

Life of this patent

Dynamically adapting multiple versions on system commands to a single operating system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims13