PATCHING ENVIRONMENT FOR MODIFYING A JAVA VIRTUAL MACHINE AND METHOD

The invention includes a patch environment for a modifying a program executed by a Java Virtual Machine ("JVM") while the program is being executed. The patch environment has a patch data structure defined on an electronic memory of the computer. The patch data structure has at least one Java patch for modifying a loader environment of the JVM. A plurality of data items contained in a data structure defined on the electronic memory of the computer represents each patch of the patch data structure. A second data item is contained in a second data structure defined on the electronic memory of the computer, the data item representing each applied patch of the patch data structure that modifies the loader environment of the JVM. The method of the present invention applies an ordered set of changes to a Java program while running under the control of a Java Virtual Machine having a loader environment which manages the program's loaded software. A patch environment is created such that the patch environment can alter the loader environment of the JVM. A patch file is generated containing a change to be applied to the loaded software and is loaded into the patch environment. The patch is then applied to the loaded software by changing the loader environment of the JVM while the Java program is running.