The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 26, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 10, 1999
Eric W Loy, Fort Collins, CO (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention is generally directed to a system and method for critical patches for installation on a given computer system. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the method includes the steps of obtaining an identification of installed components on the computer system, and obtaining a list of all relevant patches for the installed components. The method further generates a Boolean logic expression for each relevant patch, and evaluates each Boolean logic expression to determine a minimal set of patches to be installed, which minimal set of patches include all patches for all critical errors. In essence, a database containing all patch information for a given family, or all families, of software components of a computer system may be accessed, and a Boolean logic expression may be constructed for a given family of patches. Specifically, the Boolean logic expression may express which patches (or alternative patch configurations) should be installed in order to have all critical defects effectively patched. In one embodiment, the system may evaluate the current configuration of a given computer system to determine what patches are presently installed, and determine the fewest additional patches that need to be installed to correct or repair all critical defects in the family, or families, of software.