The system automatically creates an update from an old version to a new version despite the old version possibly being several version prior to the new version. There may be some increments in the version for which no change needs to be made to the application running on the client system, even though the code running on the host may have been updated. A graph of the versions is constructed based on the new version and old version. The updates for consecutive versions for which no format change is needed are collapsed into a single no operation update or combined into a single update with an update that requires an operation. Then the shortest path along the graph connecting the current version and new version is determined. The update steps along the shortest path are automatically combined into a single update, and then the update is performed.