Really crappy page documenting archive criteria


<h1>Really crappy page documenting archive criteria</h1>

<h2>Architectures</h2>

<p><b>Release candidates:</b> alpha, amd64, hppa, i386, ia64, mips, mipsel, powerpc
<br><b>Release hopefuls:</b> arm, s390, sparc

<p><b>Requalification expected:</b> m68k
<br><b>Future linux ports:</b> armeb
<br><b>New OS hopefuls:</b> <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/ArchiveQualification/kfreebsd-i386">kfreebsd-i386</a>, win32-i386

<h2>Requirements for architectures</h2>

<p>Examples: amd64, arm, armeb, m68k, s390, sparc

<ul>
<li>Is port cursed?
<li>Are machines available to general public?
<li>Is full source available?
<li>Is this architecture related to other architectures already in the archive,
or that also should be considered, either now or in the future? Can the related
architectures be supported in a single architecture (eg, with a biarch arrangement)?
<li>Are there 3 or more developers (or n-ms) actively maintaining the port? Who are they?
<li>What sort of architecture is this? Desktop/workstation? Mainframe/supercomputer? Embedded? Something else?
<li>Does it have any users? If a desktop system, are there Debian admins who
run Debian systems on the arch? If an embedded system are there real systems
shipping that a Debian port will be useful for? If a mainframe system are there
real systems with many users that a Debian port will be useful for? Who are they?
<li>Is there kernel and toolchain support? At what level? Are the latest versions supported, or are
legacy releases required for compatability with some hardware?
<li>Has the ABI stabalised, or are there major ABI changes coming
up? Is the ABI stable enough to ensure users will be able just "apt-get
dist-upgrade" from one version to the next?
<li>How do you install a system? (URL to a HOWTO)
<li>Has a buildd been setup? How much of the archive has been built (count by
source package, builds of old versions are fine for this case)?
<li>What hardware is potentially available as a fast buildd?
<li>Is there any corporate support of this arch, and the Debian port in particular?
<li>Is there an example box developers can login to to see if it works?
</ul>

<p>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.

<h2>Further requirements for OSes</h2>

<p>Examples: hurd, opensolaris, kfreebsd

<ul>
<li>Are there existing comprehensive free distributions of this OS? If
so, why is a Debian distribution useful?
<li>What demonstrable benefits does this OS have over existing Debian OSes?
<li>Does this system have a standard Unix API?
<li>Does the OS support modern glibc and gcc?
<li>What is the license on the kernel and libraries? Is it free? Is it GPL
compatible? (Note that if it's not free, building software for it violates the
Social Contract; and if it's not GPL compatible, GPL software such as dpkg can't be
linked to it)
<li>Does the OS build largely without source changes? If so, what proportion of
the archive has built?
</ul>

<p>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.

<p>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.