Abstract: A method or apparatus determines an order for installing software patches by comparing information in the software patches. The information may include files created or modified to fix software errors in a software program and metadata referring to the files. By comparing the information, the method or apparatus may determine whether at least two of the software patches include files in common. Based on the results of comparing the information, the method or apparatus may automatically determine an order for installing the software patches into the software program. The files in a given software patch may be used to fix unrelated software errors. The metadata may refer to a time at which the files in the software patches were created or modified, and the order of installation may occur in a chronological manner based on creation or modification dates.

Abstract: 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.