The OpenSUSE Build Service was released in a 1.6 version that adds ARM support to the community distro. Meanwhile, the Linux Foundation (LF) announced that the service will be incorporated in its Linux Developer Network (LDN), enabling “software to be packaged for all major Linux distributions,” says the LF.

Announced at this week's Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, which once again is being held in San Francisco, the build service is provided via an interface between the service and the LDN site that enables LDN developers to create packages for major distros. Supported distributions are said to include CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and Ubuntu. The service complements LDN's AppChecker application, which enables developers to create portable applications for Linux, says the Novell-sponsored, open-source OpenSUSE Project.

The OpenSUSE Build Service which was announced by the OpenSUSE Project, in July, is billed as “collaboration system” that enables developers contributing to the project to work together on Linux packages or solution stacks. The service is said to package source code for several popular distributions, and cross-compile it for a variety of architectures. Incorporating build scripts aimed at building and packaging software in “clean and safe” chrooted build environments, the service enables “greater transparency in the development process and additional contributions from the community,” says the project.

OpenSUSE Build Service 1.6

This week, OpenSUSE ships version 1.6 version of the build service, which has been incorporated into the community OpenSUSE 11.1, upon which Novell's SLE distributions are based. The new release enables developers to compile packages for the embedded-oriented ARM platform. As a result, developers can create RPM or Debian packages for openSUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora, says the project. The ARM support has been contributed to the OpenSUSE community by 5e DataSoft GmbH. Version 1.6 also adds support for building OpenSUSE appliances, live CDs, installable USB images, Xen images, and VMware images, says the OpenSUSE Project.

Stated Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier, OpenSUSE community manager, “The openSUSE Build Service has always been intended as a tool that would accelerate the general adoption of Linux. It's gratifying to see the build service becoming part of the Linux Developer Network and being embraced by the larger community.”

Stated Martin Mohring, CTO at 5e DataSoft, “Because the openSUSE Build Service is GPL'ed, we've been able to add features and work with the openSUSE project to integrate them into the official build service.”

Stated Amanda McPherson, VP of marketing and developer programs for the LF, “The openSUSE Build Service is a huge step forward for developers and ISVs that want to package their offerings for all major distros quickly and easily.”

 
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