METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING PATCHABLE SOFTWARE SYSTEMS

A method or corresponding apparatus manages deployment of a software patch (“patch”) by creating a given patch comprising at least one file and associating information with the given patch that prevents other patches from being installed over the given patch. In one some embodiments, patches are no longer delivered directly from a software engineer to a customer. Instead, the software engineer works with a patch manager that, among other tasks, may track a state of software on the customer's machine, allowing for installing another patch without producing adverse effects that may be caused by installing over the given patch. To install another patch, software on the customer's machine is set into a known state by uninstalling the given patch. Once in the known state, the other patch may be installed.