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FOSDEM PWA

The saga of official binary packages for Gentoo Linux

UB2.147 | Day 2 | 13:00 - 13:25 | Speakers: Andreas K. Hüttel, Sam James

The saga of official binary packages for Gentoo Linux
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Abstract

You all used to know Gentoo Linux as a source-based Linux distribution, where compiling things on your own machine was both pleasure and pain, right? Well, some time ago we announced that we now also offer binary packages for download. And while of course a few purists protested, overall this initiative was a resounding success. Now you can mix and match between binary and source based installation, and find your own balance between convenience and tuning.

A lot of LEGO blocks had to come together (and occasionally be stepped on) to make this happen. From quality control and automated rebuilds on the source installation side, to a new package format and support for GPG signing, to package delivery and designated build hosts, extended support in the package manager, ... Let us tell you the story of an experiment that worked out great, and discuss further possible future improvements.

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Speakers

Andreas K. Hüttel

I've been actively contributing to Gentoo Linux for a long time, with developer status since 2010. I'm a Gentoo Council member since 2013 and Gentoo Foundation trustee since 2023, and currently member of toolchain, base system, release engineering, binhost, PR, RISC-V, and many more teams. Beyond that I'm helping out upstream with glibc.

Otherwise I'm an experimental physicist by profession, with a background in low-temperature nanophysics and nano-electromechanics, and have been responsible for releasing quite some students upon the world over the past years.

Sam James

Gentoo developer but often found all over the place. I work on a variety of projects in Gentoo, but focus on the toolchain and core packages. Interesting bugs crop up everywhere and anywhere though and they're what motivate me to keep going.

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