Re: Removing dpkg arch definitions for kfreebsd-any?
Hi!
On Wed, 2025-09-03 at 10:34:07 +0200, Andrea Pappacoda wrote:
> On Wed Sep 3, 2025 at 4:42 AM CEST, Guillem Jover wrote:
> > Was checking last year the status of several of the dpkg arch
> > definitions, and whether they are in use and/or useful, and
> > stumbled over the kfreebsd-any ones.
> >
> > The ports were dropped from Debian, and they never went back to
> > Debian ports. The ports were declared dead, and there's been no
> > further development that I'm aware of, and while that saddens
> > me, I think it should be fine to remove their definitions from
> > dpkg? (If the port ever grows interest again we could always
> > re-add them! :)
> Which kinds of operataing systems should be ideally kept?
For operating systems, the current policy is that anything that at
least supports the filesystems requirements in [F], resembles or
is close to POSIX/Unix, and is still supported upstream
(kernel/libc/toolchain/etc), then can be supported.
I even try to either port or test on supported operating systems where
I can get a VM running or can get SSH access to a sponsored hosting.
See <https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/Porting>. My reasons for
porting are manifold:
* Porting to different OS and CPUs, tends to make the code and
project architecture better and more robust as in the process you
find wrong assumptions that might be even wrong in your main OS/CPUs
(but which might not be currently triggering or fatal, or might
rely on unportable formats, etc.).
* Porting makes something like dpkg available in more places, where
people and/or downstreams [D] can use it instead of whatever else
they might otherwise have to use, :) or where they might want to
use it to natively develop for other foreign systems.
* Porting is a way to get exposed to other OS/CPUs and how things
are done differently (sometimes better or worse) elsewhere.
* Porting is fun. :D
[F] <https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/FAQ#fsys-requirements>
[D] <https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/Downstream>
> I also see some definitions like kopensolaris in the ostable.
Yes! I sent a message about that one in 2023, and I replied yesterday
that I've queued it for removal now:
<https://lists.debian.org/debian-dpkg/2025/09/msg00007.html>
Thanks,
Guillem
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