binary differencing

Overview of Visual Patch 3.5

Visual Patch 3.5 is a fast and efficient solution for developers who need to create secure, compact and reliable patches for their software products. It features state-of-the-art DeltaMAX™ binary difference compression, combined with a powerful full-history patching engine. No other tool makes patch development as easy or as flexible. We guarantee it or you’ll get your money back.

Unlike other tools that borrow functionality from third-party installers or are built upon command line tools, Visual Patch features a completely integrated visual development environment. Visual Patch automatically takes care of the complicated details of patch development, such as inspecting versions to decide which files have changed, and performing sophisticated byte level differencing on each file in order to extract the differences between versions.

• High Performance Binary Differencing. State-of-the-art delta compression algorithms developed specifically for their impressive speed characteristics, especially for gigabyte-sized files. Create smaller patches for larger files faster.

• Full-History Patching. Gives developers full control over which versions can be patched with a single executable. Full-history patching means you can update any version of your software to the latest release with one patch file.

• Sophisticated Version Management. Makes it easy to manage software releases. You can quickly and easily add, remove and organize product versions, and see all of the important details about your files.

• Customizable User Interface. A library of over twenty different screens makes it easy to control the user interface of your patches. There are pre-built layouts to handle just about any task you can imagine, and it’s easy to adjust them to fit your needs exactly.

• 100% Data Integrity. Patches are only applied to the exact files they’re intended for. Using a combination of 128-bit MD5 hashing, CRC-32 checksums and industry standard data encryption protocols, applications and data are kept safe from unauthorized use, transmission errors and other threats.

With its sophisticated yet straightforward user interface, Visual Patch 3.5 simplifies software version management, turning the otherwise complicated task of managing point releases into a fast and automated process. There is no better way to make professional-quality, full-history binary patches for software and other electronic content.

Visual Patch 3.5 is the result of over 15 years of experience creating software deployment tools. You can rely on Indigo Rose to provide reliable tools, top quality documentation and superior technical support .

Click here to dowload a free trial version of Visual Patch 3.5

Benefits of Software Patching

The role of patches in the software deployment cycle is to get already-installed software up to date after it becomes outdated. Patching technology offers numerous benefits over simply redistributing new versions of the original software in whole form.

The first and most fundamental benefit is a dramatic reduction in file size, which leads to reduced bandwidth and storage costs. Because they only contain the data that has changed from one version to another, patches can be much smaller than a full installer or compressed archive. Especially in situations where large data files are involved, the savings are often dramatic, with typical bandwidth reductions between 90% and 99%.

Having less data to transmit means that updates can be sent and received faster, which means less time is spent waiting for updates, improving the user’s update experience and making automatic “background” updates feasible.

Binary differencing also makes the update process more secure. Transmitting only tiny portions of a file in a format that can’t be used without the original greatly reduces the risk of unauthorized use.

Competitive Position

Some tools claim to support large-file patching, but they process large files so slowly that it really isn’t feasible to use them for that purpose. Visual Patch uses a unique binary differencing algorithm that was developed to process very large files as quickly as possible. It does this while also achieving the best compression performance possible on all file sizes, large and small.

For example, in benchmark testing Visual Patch was able to create a patch for a 1.2 GB data file in under 3 minutes, whereas the nearest competitor we tested required more than 70 minutes to process the data on the same system. Some of the competing tools we tested were not even able to process such a large file, and either failed completely or were still processing after more than 24 hours.

Remarkably, Visual Patch achieves its speed without sacrificing performance, creating patches that compare favorably in size to patches created by other tools. In fact, Visual Patch’s speed permits additional size optimizations that are not feasible with other tools. For example, it can automatically perform multiple passes with different settings in order to find the optimal parameters for each particular file-and still manage to do so in less time than competing tools require for a single pass!

Visual Patch combines its advanced binary differencing engine with an intelligent full-history patching system. Full-history patches can update any older version to the latest release, allowing multiple versions to be patched with the same file. Only having one file to download simplifies the patching process. End users don’t have to worry about finding multiple patches and applying them in the correct order, as they would with other, less sophisticated patching tools.

binary differencing

Overview of DeltaMAX 1.0

DeltaMAX is an advanced binary differencing engine library for Windows. It allows you to create and apply binary difference files (”patch files”) from your applications. It is the same binary differencing engine used in Visual Patch.

Binary differencing is the process of analyzing two files and then compactly representing the differences or “delta” between them. Also known as “delta compression,” binary differencing is able to represent the data that differs between two files in the most compact way possible.

The most common application of binary differencing is in creating software patches. This involves analyzing two versions of a file in order to extract only the data that has changed from one version to the other. The results of this analysis can then be used to recreate the newer version from any file that exactly matches the original. By only containing the differences, such a patch file can be very small.

Of course, there are many other uses for binary differencing beyond deploying software updates. Because so little data needs to be transmitted, delta compression makes it possible to distribute changes to large data files as efficiently possible.

Key Features

• Very fast encoding. DeltaMAX is able to perform multiple passes in less time than it takes other tools to perform a single pass.
• Fast decoding. DeltaMAX uses efficient file I/O buffering in order to apply differences quickly.
• Low memory requirements for decoding. DeltaMAX requires only minimal amounts of memory for decoding, and is able to apply differences in low memory situations.
• Compact encoding format. DeltaMAX uses a custom encoding scheme that is very efficient.
• Unique multi-pass optimization. DeltaMAX can perform multiple encoding passes in order to experimentally achieve the best results. This is especially important because the optimal settings can vary according to the unique internal structure of each individual file.
• Works with all file types. DeltaMAX can create differences for all kinds of files (e.g. software executables, word documents, satellite images, medical databases, ocean maps, game data files…)
• Support for large files. DeltaMAX is exceptional in its ability to handle very large files (up to 2GB) and to encode these large files very quickly.
• Developed for Windows. DeltaMAX was developed specifically for the Windows platform, and does not sacrifice performance to achieve platform independence.

Benefits of Binary Differencing

Binary differencing is the process of analyzing two files and then compactly representing the differences or “delta” between them. Also known as “delta compression,” binary differencing is able to represent the data that differs between two files in the most compact way possible.

This technology is most commonly used in software updating and patch management applications, however it is also ideal for use in backup software, server synchronization, data transmission or wherever the environment calls for reduced storage space and lower bandwidth usage.

Having less data to transmit means that file changes can be sent and received faster, which means less time is spent waiting for updates, improving productivity and making “background” updates possible.

In addition to reduced file sizes, binary differenced files are very secure. Difference files contain only the byte level differences between the two source files. Transmitting only tiny portions of a file in a format that can’t be used without the original greatly reduces the risk of unauthorized use.

Competitive Position

Some binary differencing libraries claim to include large-file support, but they process large files so slowly that it really isn’t feasible to use them for that purpose. DeltaMAX uses a unique binary differencing algorithm that was developed to process very large files as quickly as possible. It does this while also achieving the best compression performance possible on all file sizes, large and small.

For example, in benchmark testing DeltaMAX was able to create a patch for a 1.2 GB data file in under 3 minutes, whereas the nearest competitor we tested required more than 70 minutes to process the data on the same system. Some of the competing libraries we tested were not even able to process such a large file, and either failed completely or were still processing after more than 24 hours.

Remarkably, DeltaMAX achieves its speed without sacrificing performance, creating difference files that compare favorably in size to difference files created by other tools. In fact, the speed of DeltaMAX permits additional size optimizations that are not feasible with other tools. For example, it can perform multiple passes with different settings in order to find the optimal parameters for each particular file-and still manage to do so in less time than competing tools require for a single pass!