Dynamic update mechanisms in operating systems

Abstract

To dynamically update an operating system, a new factory object may have one or more new and/or updated object instances. A corresponding old factory object is then located and its version is checked for compatibility. A dynamic update procedure is then executed, which includes (a) changing a factory reference pointer within the operating system from the old factory object to the new factory object. For the case of updated object instances, (b) hot swapping each old object instance for its corresponding updated object instance, and (c) removing the old factory object. This may be performed for multiple updated object instances in the new factory object, preferably each separately. For the case of new object instances, they are created by the new factory and pointers established to invoke them. A single factory object may include multiple updated objects from a class, and/or new object instances from different classes, and the update may be performed without the need to reboot the operating system.