Clarification: ports, archs, autobuilders

[Stephan A Suerken <absurd@olurdix.de>]

Hi,

 I would like anyone to comment if I am right on these points.

o There's currently no standard way (for developers) to test the building of packages
  on public (alien arch) machines. 

[ What I have in mind is a s.th. like a chroot environment like on vore, but with some
add-on to allow developers to satisfy (special) build dependencies (i.e., to install
packages).]

o Instead, the procedure is rather to upload the package and check if autobuilders catch
  up and add packages to the debian archive, and to rely on bug reports.

o The several autobuilders are run by debian developers, using buildd.d.o, who then
  in turn upload successfully built binary packages to the debian archive.

o There is no (standard) way to get autobuilder buildlogs.

[I.e., for example, I really could not find a list of autobuilders. I know
about vore(sparc), where it seems to be possible to access buildlogs via
"http://vore.debian.org/buildlogs/<pkg>" (if it's not broken ;). So it seems
currently a developer whose package does not build (or show up) on some alien
<arch> -- and does not get useful bug reports -- is at a loss.]

Thanks,

Stephan
-- 
Stephan A Suerken <absurd@olurdix.de>