ABSTRACT
The simple-sounding task of taking software that runs on one person’s machine and getting it to run on another machine can be painfully difficult in practice, even if both machines have the same operating system. Since no two machines are identically configured, it is hard for developers to predict the exact versions of software and libraries already installed on potential users’ machines and whether those conflict with the requirements of their own software. Thus, software companies devote considerable resources to creating and testing one-click installers for products such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, and Google Chrome. Similarly, open-source developers must carefully specify the proper dependencies in order to integrate their software into package management systems [2] (e.g., RPM on Linux, MacPorts on Mac OS X). Despite these efforts, online forums and mailing lists are filled with discussions of users’ troubles in compiling, installing, and configuring software and dependencies.
