1. A system comprising an information carrier with data structures stored thereon, the data structures comprising: a configuration repository to store configuration information for use by multiple versions of a software application program wherein the configuration information includes configuration information entries, each configuration information entry 1) being associated with a configuration component that is used by the software application program, and 2) having a configuration attribute having a value for the associated configuration information entry; and a configuration directory to store selected configuration information entries for use by a particular version of the software application program, wherein the configuration information entries of the configuration directory are provided to the particular version of the software application program.