A system and method for efficient upgrading of computing system software. A computing system includes clients and one or more servers coupled to a network. Cluster server software allows the clients and server(s) to work together as a cluster. This software is platform- and version-specific depending on the customer. Each customer has a customized configuration with customer-dependent edits performed on the original configuration. When a new-release configuration is made available, the three configurations are translated to abstract object trees. A series of predetermined abstract operations are preformed on the abstract object trees in order to generate a target abstract object tree. The target abstract object tree is translated to a target file, wherein the target file includes the common portions between the original and new-release configurations and the merged upgrades of the customized and new-release configurations.