System and method for matching a plurality of ordered sequences with applications to call stack analysis to identify known software problems
US7840946B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 2, 2006 |
| Grant date | Nov 23, 2010 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 23, 2029 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F11/36
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The invention finds matches in ordered sequences, e.g. program function call stacks from anomalous software program executions for discovering related or identical software flaws and possible known solutions. Call stacks are matched after removing recursive and uninformative subpatterns, e.g. names of common error handling routines, to see if they were generated due to the same possibly known problem. Sequences statistically unlikely to be matches are pruned from the search. Matches found earlier in the sequences may be weighted differently, e.g. to be more important in call stacks, than other matches. Sequences are indexed so that those relevant to a query are identified automatically without detailed exhaustive search. Maximum matches are found by optimizing a cost function based on weighted sequence similarity.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.