Package Upgrade Robustness: An Analysis for GNU/Linux Package Management Systems

GNU/Linux systems are today used in servers, desktops, mobile and embedded devices. One of the critical operations is the installation and maintenance of software packages in the system. Currently there are no frameworks or tools for evaluating Package Management Systems (PMSs), such as RPM, in Linux and for measuring their reliability. The authors perform an analysis of the robustness of the RPM engine and discuss some of the current limitations. This article contributes to the enhancement of Software Reliability in Linux by providing a framework and testing tools under an open source license. These tools can easily be extended to other PMSs such as DEB packages or Gentoo Portage.