System and method for determining which objects in a set of objects should be processed

Abstract

The present invention is generally directed to a system and method for determining whether components of a computer system should be analyzed for updates and repairs. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a method evaluates a configuration object containing an identification of components installed on the computer system. The method also evaluates an analyzer object, containing information about an analyzer, to determine whether the analyzer operates upon the system, based on the characteristics of the system and the characteristics sought by the analyzer. Then, the method evaluates an update object, containing information identifying the last time that the components of the computer system were analyzed by the analyzer, to determine whether the analyzer should be run again. The method also evaluates a global data source. The result of this evaluation determines which additional systems should be analyzed. This determination is based on the particular changes in the global data source since the last analysis. In the preferred embodiment, an analyzer is a program that evaluates a system configuration to determine whether there are certain errors, defects, potential errors, or potential defects in the configuration.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.