corner image corner image corner image corner image Debian Archive criteria

Definitions

  Example
Architecture amd64, armel, alpha, m68k. Basically everything that uses the Linux kernel.
OS hurd, opensolaris, kfreebsd. Ports that do not use the Linux kernel, but their own.

A new architecture has to follow the Rules for new architectures, and answer all Questions for new architectures.

A new OS has to follow the Rules for new architectures and answer all Questions for new architectures as well as all Further questions for OSes.

To have the answers all at one location, please create a page below wiki.debian.org/ArchiveQualification/.

Rules for existing architectures

Rules for new architectures

Questions for new architectures

It's also worth considering whether the port has any special requirements. If the port is mainly for embedded systems, it may be appropriate to have different installation or release arrangements compared to normal desktop/workstation architectures.

Further questions for OSes

It's worth thinking about whether it makes sense to integrate the port with Debian's Linux-based distribution -- having separate sources may not only reduce the impact on the release architectures, but also make it easier to do development on the new OS as well.

Note that if significant changes are needed to more than just a small number of packages, your porting team will not only need to provide patches for most of those changes and make sure they work, but also ensure they don't cause problems for existing ports.