Method and apparatus for packaging and streaming installation software

A method comprising:

• a client computer system receiving, over a network, an installation package, wherein the installation is usable to install a software application on the client computer system, and wherein the installation package includes one or more dummy files, each of which corresponds to one or more actual files that are not included in the installation package, wherein each of the one or more dummy files includes a header, wherein a remaining portion of each of the one or more dummy files includes content not present in its corresponding one or more actual files;
• the client computer system subsequently receiving, over the network, a first of the one or more actual files, wherein the first actual file corresponds to a first of the one or more dummy files;
• the client computer system replacing the first dummy file in the installation package with the first actual file;
• and
• the client computer system using the installation package and the first actual file to configure the client computer system to install the software application.

A method comprising:

• a computer system classifying each of a plurality of files in a first installation package according to a file type of that file, wherein the first installation package is usable to install a software application on a target system;
• the computer system creating a dummy file for each of the plurality of files classified as having a first file type, wherein each dummy file includes a header and a remaining portion of the dummy file includes content that has been nullified, and wherein each dummy file is subsequently replaceable by the file for which that dummy file was created;
• and
• the computer system creating a second installation package including the dummy files, wherein the second installation package is streamable to the target system.

A method of creating an installation package to be streamed to a target system to configure the target system for execution of a software application in a streaming mode, the method comprising:

• a computer system extracting, from an installation package including a plurality of files including a set of archive files, wherein the installation package is usable to install the software application, and wherein the installation package is in a form not formatted for streaming;
• the computer system creating a list of all of the files in the installation package;
• the computer system creating a list of streamlets for all of the files in the installation package;
• the computer system classifying each of the files in the installation package as belonging to either a first type or a second type, the first type representing all of the files in the installation package which are normally installed on a system for purposes of installing the software application, the second type representing all of the files in the installation package which are not of the first type;
• the computer system, for each file of the first type which is not an archive file, creating a dummy file of the same size with a special header and nullifying all of the other files of the first type;
• the computer system creating a dummy archive file for any files of the first type which are contained in an archive file;
• the computer system creating a dummy installation image including each said dummy file, each said dummy archive file, and each said file of the second type;
• and
• the computer system creating the streaming installation package to include the dummy installation image, application information and a database, wherein the database contains the software application and indicates a segmenting of the application into streamlets, and wherein the application information represents only the files of the second type in the dummy installation image.

An apparatus comprising:

• means for converting an installation package usable to install a software application on a target processing system from a first format to a second format, wherein the first format is compatible with a standardized installation format and does not permit streaming of the installation package, and wherein the second format is compatible with the standardized installation format and permits streaming of the installation package, wherein converting the installation program includes replacing a first actual file in the installation package with a first dummy file and replacing a second actual file in the installation package with a second dummy file, wherein the first and second dummy files are subsequently replaceable with the first and second actual files, respectively, wherein the first and second dummy files each include a respective header, wherein a remaining portion of the first dummy file includes content not present in the first actual file;
• and wherein a remaining portion of the second dummy file includes content not present in the second actual file;
• and
• means for streaming the converted installation to the target processing system, wherein said streaming causes the target processing system to be configured to execute the software application.