When a new version of a software system is created, the current version of the system must be shut down while the new version is installed, resulting in software ‘downtime’. There are application domains where such downtime is undesirable if not wholly unacceptable. A dynamic program updating system replaces, or updates, a computer program with a new version while the program continues to run. A dynamic program updating system for programs written in conventional procedural languages such as Pascal and C is described. The proposed system updates programs without causing substantial performance degradation and requires minimal user intervention to initiate the update. A fully functional prototype updating system is presented and a sample program, namely an internet packet router called the ‘Packet Pumper’, is updated. The performance of the updating system and the Packet Pumper is discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.