Henning Makholm wrote:
So how can an architecture ever become releaseworthy? It will not get release-certified before it has a a debian.org machine, and it cannot get a machine in debian.org before it has a stable version with security support, and it's not allowed to create a stable version and provide security support for it before it has been release-certified.
Here's one way. Let's say you're hacking on the Hurd. You've been in the archive for a while on scc.d.o as a non-release candidate, and just the other day you've finally managed to get it to run "ls" again, and in the euphoria from that moment, over a single 48h hacking session you've gotten it secure, network capable, got it building everything, made it efficient, fixed the toolchain to work perfectly, and in your madcap adventures, attracted dozens of other developers and thousands of users to join in.
At this point you go "YAY!!!!" and do a snapshot release of everything you've done, which you call "Debian GNU/Hurd -- The Stampede". You burn CDs that people hand out at tradeshows, everyone tells you how much it rocks, you install some machines with it and start using them as web servers and so forth.
You talk to the security team and arrange someway to do limited support for security updates; via security.d.o, via some random suite in scc.d.o, on people.d.o or elsewhere. You talk to maintainers and make sure any special patches you used when releasing your snapshot are applied in unstable, and work through any concerns that arise. You keep your buildd working. You keep the hurd.debian.net developer box you installed and setup functioning and secure. You demonstrate you and your co-porters are competent and effective and will pay attention to problems raised by the release team. You address any other concerns DSA, the release team, the security team, ftpmaster, or others have, like the responsible, professional amateurs you are.
You and the release team and others then all say "Okay, we're ready for Hurd to become a real release arch", at which point you make sure you're properly integrated into the buildd network, convert your hurd.debian.net box to a hurd.debian.org box, and get added to testing.
The last paragraph won't all happen in the same microsecond, but I don't think it's much of a problem to have them all happen more or less together.
Cheers, aj