US 8,949,822 B2Granted

System, method and program product to manage installation of programs

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorRichard Martin Ross

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Abstract

A system, method and computer program product for controlling execution of a script program programmed to install a computer program is disclosed. An installation computer begins execution of the script program, and before a line or stanza of the script program is executed to initiate installation of the computer program, the installation computer determines that the line or stanza is programmed to initiate installation of the computer program. In response, the installation computer determines if the computer program is already installed. If the computer program is already installed, the installation computer skips the line or stanza of the script program so the script program will not attempt to install the computer program. However, if not, the installation computer continues to execute the script program including the line or stanza programmed to initiate installation of the computer program, such that the script program attempts to install the computer program.

Claims9

Dependent claims

A computer program product for controlling execution of a script program including a stanza to direct installation of a first version of a computer program in a target computer, the computer program product comprising:

one or more computer-readable storage devices;
the script program stored on one of the storage devices;
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices as an installation program separate from the script program and separate from the computer program, to begin to execute a line of code in a beginning part of the stanza of the script program, the line including a non-alphanumeric character which directs the installation program computer to parse a remainder of the line as a command to an operating system in the target computer, the command requesting the operating system to determine if the first version of the computer program is already installed in the target computer by searching within at least one directory of the target computer for a name of the first version of the computer program or for a program feature of the first version of the computer program that does not appear within any other versions of the computer program or in a name of any version of the computer program, wherein the command to the operating system filters for text identical to the name of the program feature, and determine from a response of the operating system to the command whether the first version of the computer program is already installed in the target computer, and, if so, the installation program modifies the script program during execution of the script program to skip a remainder of the stanza of the script program to avoid re-installation of the first version of the computer program in the target computer, and if not, the installation program executes the remainder of the stanza of the script program to direct installation of the first version of the computer program in the target computer and to parse a command to create a user account, and in response, to create a user account specified in the command to create the user account.

A data processing system for controlling execution of a script program including a stanza to direct installation of a first version of a computer program in a target computer, the data processing system comprising:

one or more processors, one or more computer-readable memories and one or more computer-readable storage devices;
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution as an installation program, which is separate from the script program and separate from the computer program, by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, to begin to execute a line of code in a beginning part of the stanza of the script program, the line including a non-alphanumeric character which directs the installation program computer to parse a remainder of the line as a command to an operating system in the target computer, the command requesting the operating system to determine if the first version of the computer program is already installed in the target computer by searching within at least one directory of the target computer for a name of the first version of the computer program or for a program feature of the first version of the computer program that does not appear within any other versions of the computer program or in a name of any version of the computer program, wherein the command to the operating system filters for text identical to the name of the program feature, and determine from a response of the operating system to the command whether the first version of the computer program is already installed in the target computer, and, if so, the installation program modifies the script program during execution of the script program to skip a remainder of the stanza of the script program to avoid re-installation of the first version of the computer program in the target computer, and if not, the installation program execute the remainder of the stanza of the script program to direct installation of the first version of the computer program in the target computer and to parse a command to create a user account, and in response, to create a user account specified in the command to create the user account.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.