Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for performing incremental software installations. The system identifies a set of files associated with one or more software programs. Each file can be a component of a software program, or any file accessed by the software program or system when the software program is executed. The system receives a list of files associated with a software version that is not installed on the system. The system determines the differences between the set of files and the list of files, and receives a missing file from the list of files based on the differences. Finally, the system builds the software version on the system using the set of files and the missing file. In building the software version, the system does not assume a linear progression of updates and is able to reuse existing files to create nonlinear variations of software.