Generating encoded identifications of selected subsets of installed software packages on a client machine

摘要

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for generating encoded identifications of selected subsets of installed software packages on a client machine. A physical or virtual client machine can host a set of installed software packages, including operating system, application, and/or other software. A package manager tracks the set of installed packages and updates available for the installed set. The package manager can be configured to capture an inventory of the installed packages, and generate an encoded identification of one or more selected subsets of the set of hosted or installed packages based on size, timestamp, and/or other attributes of the subsets and/or constituent files. An administrator or other user can for instance select only that subset or subsets related to a certain project, application, user group, or other selection criteria, and generate encoded identifications of those subsets for package updating, network management, and/or other purposes.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
identifying a plurality of software packages currently installed on a client machine; generating, at the client machine, an encoded identification of a subset of the plurality of software packages, wherein the encoded identification comprises an output of a hash function applied to a set of attributes for each software package in the subset of the plurality of software packages; communicating the encoded identification from the client machine to a remote management platform; and receiving, at the client machine, a software package update for at least one of the subset of the plurality of software packages in response to a determination by the remote management platform that a plurality of encoded identifications corresponding to a plurality of client machines encode a particular attribute, wherein the plurality of client machines comprises the client machine, wherein the plurality of encoded identifications comprises the encoded identification generated by the client machine, and wherein the set of attributes comprises the particular attribute encoded by the generated encoded identification.