title: "CDE: Run Any Linux Application On-Demand Without Installation"
authors: Philip J. Guo
venue: USENIX Large Installation System Administration Conference (LISA)
year: 2011
links:
- <a href="cde-paper.htm">Blog post</a>

tweet: CDE lets users run any set of Linux programs on other Linux machines without any installation

abstract: >
  There is a huge ecosystem of free software for Linux, but since each
  Linux distribution (distro) contains a different set of pre-installed
  shared libraries, filesystem layout conventions, and other environmental
  state, it is difficult to create and distribute software that works
  without hassle across all distros. Online forums and mailing lists are
  filled with discussions of users' troubles with compiling, installing,
  and configuring Linux software and their myriad of dependencies. To
  address this ubiquitous problem, we have created an open-source tool
  called CDE that automatically packages up the Code, Data, and
  Environment required to run a set of x86-Linux programs on other
  x86-Linux machines. Creating a CDE package is as simple as running the
  target application under CDE's monitoring, and executing a CDE package
  requires no installation, configuration, or root permissions.  CDE
  enables Linux users to instantly run any application on-demand without
  encountering "dependency hell".

bibtex: >
  @inproceedings{GuoCdeLisa2011,
   author = {Guo, Philip J.},
   title = {{CDE}: Run Any {Linux} Application On-demand Without Installation},
   booktitle = {Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Large Installation System Administration},
   series = {LISA'11},
   year = {2011},
   location = {Boston, MA},
   url = {http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2208488.2208490},
   acmid = {2208490},
   publisher = {USENIX Association},
   address = {Berkeley, CA, USA},
  }