The Semantics of Package Management via Event Structures

TL;DR

This paper models package management semantics using event structures, connecting repository data to concurrent system semantics, and introduces a process calculus with operational and categorical semantics to formalize this approach.

Contribution

It introduces a novel formal framework linking package repository data to event structures and concurrent semantics, enabling rigorous analysis of package management systems.

Findings

Repository data as nondeterministic concurrent programs

Development of a process calculus for package management

Foundations for formal analysis of package systems

Abstract

We propose an approach to the semantics of package management which relates it to general event structures, well-known mathematical objects used in the semantics of concurrent, nondeterministic systems. In this approach, the data of a package repository is treated as a declarative specification of a nondeterministic, concurrent program. We introduce a process calculus corresponding to this data, and investigate its operational and categorical semantics. Our hope is this lays the basis for further formal study of package management in which the weight of existing tools can be brought to bear.