Re: [Stretch] Status for architecture qualification

On 2016-06-05 8:56 AM, Steven Chamberlain wrote:
> John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
>> >I have invested lots of time and effort to get sparc64 into a usable state in Debian.
>> >We are close to 11.000 installed packages. Missing packages include Firefox,
>> >Thunderbird/Icedove, golang and LibreOffice to name the most important ones.
> Is there some way to define 'core'[0] packages as blockers for testing
> migration, and arch release qualification;  but other packages not?
>
> Many of these ports would be useful if just a base system was released,
> and preferably having stable/security updates for that part (otherwise
> it is difficult for users to try it, developers to work on it, or DSA to
> support buildds for it;  all of which are limitations on ports' further
> growth).
I might mention that many kernel and tool chain bugs have been resolved 
on hppa since
we joined ports.  Total source package count  is now close to 11100, 
although this fluctuates.
Using this measure we are at the same level as alpha, ppc64 and 
sparc64.  SMP systems
are stable and run reliably as buildd machines.

Even if we increased our relative package count, we don't have the 
manpower to re-qualify
as a release architecture.  However, I like Steve's suggestion. Helge 
effectively defined a set
of core packages for hppa when he set up a new jessie-based install disk 
a few months ago.
This is currently available at <www.parisc-linux.org>.  I tend to think 
this should be done within
the context of Debian ports.

Dave