Debian Project

Web Page: http://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2011/Applying

Mailing List: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/soc-coordination

The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system: a complete set of programs and utilities that make your computer run, plus applications to run on it. This operating system that we have created is called Debian GNU/Linux because of its basic building blocks: the Linux Kernel and the GNU OS tools. We simply call it Debian for short. Debian and its derivatives together make up the most popular Linux family in the world, used on systems all the way up from tiny embedded devices to world-class supercomputers.

Projects

• Apt Ordering Code Improvements The ordering code in libapt is responsible for ordering the installation of the debs. It ensures that packages are unpacked/configured in the right order so that dependencies are satisfied etc. Currently it organizes the ordering into big batches. It would be good to be able to instead order according to various constrains. Orderings like "order-for-minimal amounts of dpkg invocations", "order for minimal amount of broken packages at any point during the install".
• Apt ordering code improvements The ordering code in libapt is responsible for ordering the installation of the debs. It ensures that packages are unpacked/configured in the right order so that dependencies are satisfied etc. Currently it organizes the ordering into big batches. It would be good to be able to instead order according to various constrains. Orderings like "order-for-minimal amounts of dpkg invocations", "order for minimal amount of broken packages at any point during the install". This includes code cleanup and
• Backend tools for DEX DEX is a new program designed to help improve Debian and its derivatives by merging in changes made downstream and encouraging discussions between the various projects. As this is a new project, most of the infrastructure does not exist (or is rather hackish and incomplete). This project would involve working closely with the members of the DEX team to create the necessary backend tools so that all Debian derivatives can easily make use of the DEX project.
• Debdelta Integration Integrating debdelta natively into the apt's downloader/installer.
• Declarative diversions The dpkg-divert command should be replaced with a new control file with a declarative syntax which dpkg will parse and process directly as part of the package unpack and removal phases, eliminating the problems resulting from non-atomic handling of diversions.
• Jigsaw Packaging of Jigsaw (the modular JVM) in Debian
• Measuring Team Performance in Debian Pure Blends The aim of this project is to gauge the performance of teams in Debian Pure Blends by inspecting postings on relevant mailing lists, package upload records from the Ultimate Debian Database and commit statistics from project repositories. The information gathered will help in evaluating team performance by measuring how people in a team are working together and an interface to access this information easily will also be developed.