Beyond Debian

When the "best" distro just isn't good enough

Martin F. Krafft <mail@martin-krafft.net>

Medlemsmøte i NUUG Oslo 13 Nov 2007

About me

Beyond Debian?

I conferred with

The result?

Debian is omnipotent!

Thus, we're done!

beer.png

Thanks for showing up!

My experience

Beyond Debian!

Debian for sysadmins

The ideal in system administration is to do as little as possible

System administration

Unpackaged software

Stowing software

Example: stowing git

#!/bin/sh

cd ${0%/*}
git pull
(cd /usr/local/stow && stow -D git)
rm -rf /usr/local/stow/git
make clean install install-doc prefix=/usr/local/stow/git
(cd /usr/local/stow && stow git)

Integration with Debian

System administration

Permission management

ACLs

Example: ACLs

# setfacl -R -d -m group:webmasters:rwx /var/log/apache
# setfacl -R -m group:webmasters:rwx /var/log/apache
# chmod -R ug=rwX,o= /var/log/apache
# ls -ld /var/log/apache
drwxrwx---+ 2 root root 4096 2007-10-28 21:28 /var/log/apache
# getfacl /var/log/apache
# file: var/log/apache
# owner: root
# group: root
[…]
group:webmasters:rwx                 #effective:r-x
mask::r-x
[…]
default:group:webmasters:rwx

System administration

Keeping /etc under version control

FAI softupdate

etckeeper

Hooks and a local repository

System administration

Maintaining multiple systems

Backing up

Packages

Stable vs. outdated

"Look, this is Debian. They don't release things until you have to fire rockets at the thing to stop it from working." (Slashdot quote)

and

"Debian releases are out of date the minute they are published" (common prejudice)

Alternative package sources

Pinning

Example: /etc/apt/preferences

#Package: *
#Pin: release a=etch-backports
#Pin-Priority: 1

Package: mdadm
Pin: version 2.6.2-1~bpo.1
Pin-Priority: 600

Package: molly-guard
Pin: release a=etch-backports
Pin-Priority: 600

Packages

When the Debian package does not meet your needs…

… rebuild it!

This is Debian:

  1. Download package source
  2. Make the required change(s)
  3. Log your change(s)
  4. Rebuild the package
  5. Write a wishlist bug with your change

pbuilder

Tips for submitting wishlist bugs

When to become a Debian developer?

What Debian cannot do

Thank you

Thank you for your attention!

Licence

These slides, their design, and the content are © Martin F. Krafft and released under the terms of the CC by-nc-sa 2.5 licence.

reStructuredText sources: slides.rst and ui/debian/*.

Slides based on the S5 presentation system.