METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR INCREMENTAL PATCHING OF BINARY FILES

An incremental patch is generated as a set of delta files or sector-specifi c patches, intended to be applied incrementally to an old binary image. Each sector-sized patch takes into account changes to the binary image made by previous patches in the series, such that cyclic dependencies are eliminated . The sector-sized patches are generated by applying a binary difference algorithm to the then-current partially patched image, until each sector has a corresponding delta file. The order for patching sectors may be determined by selecting sectors for patching based on first overwriting those sectors making the least contribution of data to generation of the new binary image.