Mechanism for determining applicability of software packages for installation

Abstract

Mechanism for determining applicability of a software package for installation is described herein. In one embodiment, a process is provided to retrieve authentication information of a component from an installation descriptor file, where the descriptor file describes installation information of the software package. The software package may include one or more components and each component having zero or more sub-components. For at least one sub-component of at least one existing component that has already been installed, an image of the sub-component is authenticated using an authentication key extracted from the authentication information to determine whether the component can be installed based on the existing component. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.

1 .- 36 . (canceled) 
   
   
       37 . A method for installing a software package, the method comprising:
 downloading from a server over a network a package metadata (PKM) file describing installation of the software package without downloading the software package, the software package including one or more components and each of the components having zero or more sub-components;   authenticating an image of at least one sub-component of at least one existing component from which the software package is installed, wherein the authentication is performed using a first key retrieved from the PKM file; and   downloading at least a portion of the software package from the server to be installed if the image of the at least one sub-component is authenticated successfully using the first key retrieved from the PKM file.   
   
   
       38 . The method of  claim 37 , wherein the PKM file is an extensible markup language (XML) compatible file. 
   
   
       39 . The method of  claim 37 , wherein the first key comprises a checksum value of the at least one sub-component of the existing component, and wherein the authentication includes a checksum operation using the checksum value to authenticate the existing component. 
   
   
       40 . A method for installing a software package, the method comprising:
 retrieving authentication information of a component from an installation descriptor file describing installation information of the software package the software package having one or more components; and   determining authenticity of an image of at least one existing component that has already been installed using a first key extracted from the authentication information, to determine whether the component can be installed based on the existing component.   
   
   
       41 . A method for installing a software package having a plurality of components on a computer system, the method comprising:
 downloading from a server over a network metadata describing the plurality of components of the package without downloading the components;   determining, using at least a portion of the metadata, whether any of the components are already installed on the computer system;   determining, based at least in part on determining whether any of the components are already installed on the computer system, which of the components should be downloaded to the computer system for installation.