Dependency Analysis in System Administration

Abstract

With the growing size and complexity of current computing systems, it becomes more and more difficult to manage them. One of the major difficulties is to predict consequences of changes made to the system. Dependency analysis links possible changes in a system with potential problems that may be encountered afterward. x There are many approaches to dependency analysis. I will introduce the concepts of local and global dependency analysis. I will describe our previous work on global dependencies of dynamic libraries and our current research on more general approaches of dependency analysis, which include perturbation and library wrapping. I will also explain the approach of the Linux Standard Base, that attempts to make software systems more predictable by use of carefully orchestrated validation of system and software.