Evaluation of files at dependents' side

A straightforward method to determine the dependencies is to look for configuration data at the dependents (i.e., the objects playing the client role in a client-server relationship) directly expressing on what services they depend. E.g., WS' dependencies (in the introductions' example) cannot be queried directly, but are hidden in its configuration file that mentions the database server by name instead of by IP address, plus the fact that this host name is not listed in local name resolving files like ``/etc/hosts'' on typical Unix systems. One can already imagine how hard an automated detection of dependencies by looking at configuration files would be. The case would become even more complicated if host name and IP address indeed are listed in ``/etc/hosts'', because it would then be up to a third file to determine whether local resolving is carried out at all. Similar problems exist for the following case.