System and method for intra-package delta compression of data

A method in a computing environment for intra-package delta compression, the method comprising:

• receiving information corresponding to a plurality of source files;
• for each of the plurality of source files, generating a list of prospective delta inputs, the list of prospective delta inputs including an entry for each other unique source file in the plurality of source files;
• an iterator creating a delta for each prospective delta input within each file's list of prospective delta inputs;
• based on the deltas created for each prospective delta input within each file's list of prospective delta inputs and the received source files, creating a base file for a package based upon a minimal package size;
• generating a file-specific delta from the base file and a source file;
• calculating signatures for each of the plurality of source flies;
• generating a manifest file by creating a linked list of the plurality of source files, the manifest file comprising instructions needed to perform an extraction, the instructions being particularly ordered in the manifest file and the ordering of the instructions corresponding to an ordering of the linked list, and the manifest file comprising a delta section, a copy section, a verify section, and a delete section;
• saving in the manifest file the file name and signatures for each source file to be verified;
• and
• packaging the manifest file, base file and the file-specific delta into a self-contained package.