Debian -- Debian Developers' Corner

Debian -- Debian Developers' Corner
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Debian Developers' Corner
Though all information on this page and all links to other pages are publicly available, this site is primarily aimed at Debian developers.
Basic
Packaging
Work in Progress
Projects
Miscellaneous
General Information
A list of current developers and maintainers, how to join the project, and links to the developers' database, the constitution, the voting process, releases, and architectures.
Debian Organization
Over one thousand volunteers are part of the Debian project. This page explains Debian's organizational structure, lists teams and their members as well as contact addresses.
People behind Debian
List
of
Debian Developers (DD)
(full members of the Debian project)
List
of
Debian Maintainers (DM)
World map of Debian developers
How to join Debian
Would you like to contribute and join the project? We're always looking for new developers or free software enthusiasts with technical and non-technical skills. For more information, please visit this page.
Developer Database
Some information in this database is accessible to everybody, some information only to developers who have logged in. The database contains information such as
project machines
and developers' OpenPGP keys.
To extract a developer's key click on the “PGP/GPG fingerprint” link(s) once you have found them.
Developers can
change their password
and set up
mail forwarding
for their Debian account. If you're planning to use one of the Debian machines, please make sure to read the
Debian Machine Usage Policies
The Constitution
This document describes the organizational structure for formal decision-making in the project.
Voting Information
How we elect our leaders, choose our logos and how we vote in general.
Releases
This page lists current releases (
stable
testing
, and
unstable
) and contains an index of old releases and their codenames.
Different Architectures
Debian runs on many different architectures. This page collects information about various Debian ports, some based on the Linux kernel, others based on the FreeBSD, NetBSD and Hurd kernels.
Packaging
Links to our policy manual and other documents related to the Debian policy, procedures and other resources for Debian developers, and the new maintainers' guide.
Debian Policy Manual
This manual describes the policy requirements for the Debian distribution. This includes the structure and contents of the Debian archive, several design issues of the operating system as well as technical requirements which each package must satisfy to be included in the distribution.
In short, you
need
to read it.
See also the
proposed
amendments
to the policy.
There are several other documents related to the policy that you might be
interested in:
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
(FHS)
The FHS defines the directory structure
and directory contents (location of files);
compliance with version 3.0 is mandatory (see
chapter
of the Debian Policy Manual).
List of
build-essential packages
You are expected to have these packages if you want to
compile software, build a package or a set of packages. You don't
have to include them in
Build-Depends
line when
declaring
relationships
between packages.
List of
virtual package names
copyright-format specification
Debconf Specification
Menu system
Debian's structure of menu entries; please check the
menu system
documentation as well.
Several programming languages have their own specificic packaging
policies:
Ada Policy
Clojure Policy
D Policy
Golang Policy
Java Policy
Javascript Policy
Perl Policy
Python Policy
Rust Policy
Tcl/Tk Policy
(draft)
Several programs or frameworks also have their own specific
packaging policies:
Database Application Policy
(draft)
Emacs Policy
Developers' Reference
Overview of the recommended procedures and the available resources
for Debian developers -- another
must-read
Guide for Debian Maintainers
How to build a Debian package (in common language), including
lots of examples. If you're planning to become a Debian developer
or maintainer, this is a good starting point.
Work in Progress: Links for active Debian developers and maintainers
Debian ‘Testing’
Automatically generated from the ‘unstable’ distribution:
this is where you need to get your packages in order for them to be
considered for the next Debian release.
Release Critical Bugs
A list of bugs which may cause a package to be removed from the
‘testing’ distribution or may cause a delay for the
next release. Bug reports with a severity higher than or equal to
‘serious’ qualify for the list, so please make sure to
fix those bugs against your packages as soon as you can.
Debian Bug Tracking System (BTS)
For reporting, discussing, and fixing bugs. The BTS is useful
for both users and developers.
Information about Debian Packages
The
package
information
and
package
tracker
web pages provide collections of valuable
information to maintainers. Developers who want to keep
track of other packages, can subscribe (through email)
to a service which sends out copies of BTS mails and
notifications for uploads and installations. Please see the
package
tracker manual
for further information.
Packages that need Help
Work-Needing and Prospective Packages, WNPP for short, is a list
of Debian packages in need of new maintainers and packages that
have yet to be included in Debian.
Incoming System
Internal archive servers: this is where new packages are uploaded
to. Accepted packages are almost immediately available via a web
browser and propagated to
mirrors
four times a day.
Note:
Due to the nature of ‘incoming’,
we do not recommend mirroring it.
Lintian Reports
Lintian
is a program which checks whether a package conforms to the
policy. Developers should use it before every upload.
Debian ‘Experimental’
The ‘experimental’ distribution is used as a temporary
staging area for highly experimental software. Please install the
experimental
packages
only if you already know how to use
‘unstable’.
Debian Wiki
The Debian Wiki with advice for developers and other contributors.
Projects: Internal Groups and Projects
Debian Web Pages
Debian Archive
Debian Documentation Project (DDP)
Debian Quality Assurance (QA) Team
Autobuilder Network
and their
Build Logs
Debian Description Translation Project (DDTP)
The Debian Installer
Debian Live
Debian Pure Blends
Miscellaneous Links
Recordings
of our Conference Talks on PeerTube or using a
different user interface
Autopkgtest manual
Information on
Mirroring Debian
New Packages
waiting to be included in Debian (NEW Queue)
New Debian Packages
from the last 7 Days
Packages removed from Debian
Back to the
Debian Project homepage
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contact page
to get in touch. Web site source code is
available
Last Modified: Thu, Apr 23 16:35:20 UTC 2026