Building a Debian Derivative: Lessons Learned and Solutions Found

Speaker: Alex Doyle

Track: Other

Type: Short talk (20 minutes)

Video:

Room: Xueshan (雪山) Live Stream

Time: Jul 30 (Mon), 15:00

Duration: 0:20

This introductory level talk will provide an overview of the build workflow for a Debian derivative by discussing the challenges inherent in being the sole manager of everything from source code commits to published packages. Real world examples will be provided from Cumulus Linux: a Debian derivative for white box network switches. Topics covered will include:

  • Incorporating Debian as the upstream.
  • Choosing software to meet build requirements.
  • Lessons learned after the aforementioned software was chosen.
  • Where some distribution specific customization will be required.
  • Difficulties in supporting multiple architectures.
  • The role of human factors in making the build system invisible.
  • And why a good dynamic package versioning scheme is very, very important.

The intended audience would be anyone setting up a Debian Derivative, or anyone seeking a greater awareness of what commonly used Debian build tools are available, and what roles they perform.

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