PatchBreeze vs traditional compression

To evaluate the performance of PatchBreeze when moving between two versions of software, we use 5 pairs of particular software. In the Table we list for each of these pairs the original size of the new version, the ZIP compressed size of the new version, and the size of patch produced by PatchBreeze.

These test file sets include only the files that have been updated between two versions of software.

PatchBreeze perfomance compared to ZIP compression

Software	Version	Original uncompressed size of the new version, bytes	New version size compressed by ZIP, bytes	Size of patch produced by PatchBreeze, bytes	ZIP/PatchBreeze compression ratio
Unreal Tournament 2004, 65 files	3186 -> 3323	29 596 164	9 525 671	2 111 813	4.51
Far Cry, 20 files	1.00 -> 1.1	15 577 088	7 001 329	1 924 576	3.63
Neverwinter Nights, 22 files	1.18 -> 1.29	131 613 149	30 852 185	5 848 350	5.27
Nero Burning Rom, 30 files	5.0.2.4 -> 5.0.4.8	7 304 505	2 916 644	658 929	4.42
EVE Online, 39 files	3582 -> 3900	1 243 019 630	704 691 734	116 348 104	6.05

PatchBreeze performance on big files

And what about really huge files? In the table below we list the old file size, the new file size, the size of patch produced by PatchBreeze Pro and the time it takes to produce a patch. All patches were built on Athlon 64 3800+ machine with 1GB of RAM.

PatchBreeze perfomance on big files

Old and new file name	Old file size, bytes	New file size, bytes	New file size compressed by ZIP, bytes	Size of patch produced by PatchBreeze, bytes	Time taken to produce the patch, h:m:s
kernel-2.4.26.tar -> kernel-2.6.7.tar	163 577 856	197 888 000	43 969 143	16 078 601	00:02:13
kernel-2.6.7.tar -> kernel-2.6.8.tar	197 888 000	200 847 360	44 647 244	1 917 137	00:00:32
gcc-3.3.4.tar -> gcc-3.4.0.tar	152 770 560	191 467 520	35 980 250	9 188 459	00:01:27
Huge .MDB database	587 005 952	703 916 032	72 463 653	10 862 188	00:06:49
Game "Oblivion" Original version -> Addon "Shivering Isles" File Oblivion.esm	247 424 408	277 489 432	212 989 440	24 483 036	00:02:58

Some other facts about PatchBreeze:

A PatchBreeze generated update doesn't create any temporary files on disk during its work.

The footprint of executable update installation stub of a PatchBreeze update is as small as 139 KB.

If the backup option was used during the creation of a patch, then at the time of the patch application a batch script is created, which can be run to undo the installation of that particular patch completely. *

PatchBreeze generated updates correctly support patching, deleting and adding files that are currently in use. After the patching is finished, the user is asked to reboot to finish the installation of the update. It also will not be allowed to apply the same patch again until reboot, if some files are pending for rename. *

A PatchBreeze generated update automatically registers and unregisters all required ActiveX controls and COM DLLs. They are correctly registered and unregistered when needed during the updating process (even if your update is multiversion/cumulative), even in the case when the file is currently in use. *