Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Conor P Morrison

Sivaprasad V Padisetty

Arvind Gopalan

An application programming interface (API) presents services of a system to applications. The API is usable with all processes, local and remote, and is transparent with respect to the location of processes. A process table stores information about processes created using the system. The process table supports centralized process control and peer-to-peer process communication and synchronization. Each process is assigned a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) that uniquely identifies the process no matter the computing device on which it runs. A parent UUID and a group UUID may be attached to the process and used for enforcing dependencies (e.g., for halting the process and all of its child processes) and for managing arbitrary, user-defined groups, respectively. A global event is associated with each process. When a process receives this event, it performs a controlled shutdown, cleans up, and reports status.

Methods and systems for creating and communicating with computer processes on remote systems

Disclosed are a framework for managing an application's relationship to its run-time environment and an engine that accepts the framework as input and runs the application within the environment. Aspects of the framework and engine may be changed to suit a changing environment without changing the application itself. By managing details of the environment, the invention leaves developers free to focus on the specific tasks of the application. The framework also allows the engine to provide standardized services such as deadlock and leak detection, progress monitoring, and results logging. As an example, the application may be a software test suite. The invention allows the test suite to be run single- or multi-threaded and with individual tests within the suite running consecutively or concurrently. The invention can be parameterized to accommodate different testing goals, such as basic variation testing, regression testing, and stress testing, without changing the test suite itself.

Methods and systems for managing an application's relationship to its run-time environment

Disclosed are mechanisms for creating and communicating with computer processes. An application programming interface (API) presents services of the system to applications. The API is usable with all processes, local and remote, and is transparent with respect to the location of processes. A process table stores information about processes created using the system. The process table supports centralized process control and peer-to-peer process communication and synchronization. Each process is assigned a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) that uniquely identifies the process no matter the computing device on which it runs. A parent UUID and a group UUID may be attached to the process and used for enforcing dependencies (e.g., for halting the process and all of its child processes) and for managing arbitrary, user-defined groups, respectively. A global event is associated with each process. When a process receives this event, it performs a controlled shutdown, cleans up, and reports status.

Methods and systems for creating and communicating with computer processes

A configuration system is disclosed that applies rules of precedence to evaluate parameters in the context of multiple sections within a configuration file and in the context of multiple configuration files. The system brings together multiple sections and multiple files into a unified whole. The precedential order of sections and files is set by a user and special section names can be used to override default precedential rules. If a parameter is set multiple times at different levels in the hierarchy of belonging, its final value reflects the value set at the level most closely concerned with the setting of the parameter. The value of a parameter can be set from an environmental variable or from the value of another parameter. If a parameter's value depends upon the value of another parameter, that second parameter is recursively evaluated using the same precedential rules.

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Conor P Morrison