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US 8,015,220 B1Granted
Block-based differencing algorithm
AssigneeSmith Micro Software, Inc.
InventorsSerge Volkoff, Mark Armour, Darryl Lovato
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Abstract
A system and method for a block based differencing algorithm which includes the ability to limit memory requirements regardless of source file sizes by splitting the source file into optimally sized blocks. The invention allows the blocks to be processed in any order allowing in-place operation. Further, the present invention allows a second stage compressor to match the compressor blocks to those used by the differencing algorithm to optimize compressor and decompressor performance.
Claims9
A method of limiting memory required during differencing and patching, comprising the steps of:
- (a) applying a differencing algorithm that operates on finite-sized blocks created from at least one source/target file;
- and
- (b) adaptively determining block sizes as follows:
- (i) determining maximum block size based on the requirements of the differencing, compression, decompression and patching algorithms and the desired upper limit on memory requirements;
- (ii) when the number of source file blocks is small, adjusting the size of the blocks such that they are equally or similarly sized;
- and
- (iii) when the number of source file blocks is large, adjusting the size of the blocks for the last few blocks in a manner similar to (ii) above, thereby creating a similar effect as (ii), while maintaining the maximum block size for the majority of blocks.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.