Packaging

Target

If you are a maintainer of an interesting project that should be available on our platform we would like to provide it from our package repository.
It is possible to provide packages by a self hosted personal package archives (PPA) but we will not guarantee compatibility in this case.

Basic ideas

1. The package must be maintainable. Concepts like installation/removal/purge/upgrade must be considered.
2. The platform is an embedded device, we do want to keep the resource as low as possible.

Requirements

• The source code must be located in Github, Gitlab or any other public repository.
• The project must be actively maintained.
• If the package is designed as service it must use/support systemd.
• If you do not have experience in packaging Debian archives we recommend to use our script based template [TODO: Link].
• The package must be provided in “.deb” Debian archive format.
  • The package should be build against the libraries in our repository.
    • If the package requires additional or newer libs they should be provided as separate package.
    • Static builds require an explicit statement why this is needed.
  • The package must be support clean installation, upgrade and removal.
  • The package must define all dependencies and incompatibilities (in the .deb conf file).
  • The package is not allowed to change core libs or system configuration files.
• Environment specific notes:
  • Python packages:
    • The installation of python packages via “pip” or similar tools is forbidden.
    • The packages from our repository (python3-*) should be used, we can easily provide missing packages from pypi.org on request.
    • If there are good technical reasons the package may use a virtual environment. It must be created on installation and removed on removal.
  • Java packages:
    • Java packages should use the installed runtime.
  • Docker containers:
    • Docker containers can be used but are not recommended due to the overhead and maintenance problems.
      • They must be packed in a Debian archive (docker save) and support installation/removal/upgrade to avoid “pollution” of the system by unused/deprecated containers [TODO: Add guide].