openSUSE Project Releases Version 1.0 of openSUSE Build Service

The openSUSE project, a worldwide project dedicated to building a community Linux* distribution, today achieved another milestone in simplifying contributions to the openSUSE distribution with the release of openSUSE Build Service 1.0. The first major release of the Build Service provides developers with direct access to the code repositories for the openSUSE Linux distribution, thus streamlining the ability for all developers to contribute code.

"I am really thrilled with the release of openSUSE Build Service 1.0," said Adrian SchrÖter, project manager for the openSUSE Build Service. "This will make openSUSE development much more transparent, allow the community to more efficiently and rapidly contribute to the distribution, and expand the number of users who are participating in our project."

Since its inception, the openSUSE® Build Service has offered a unique collaboration system for groups to work closely together on Linux packages or solution stacks. This release delivers the ability to scale to larger projects and expands the scope of the openSUSE Build Service to building the entire openSUSE release.

"This release will make it even easier for users to get involved in the packaging process," says Amilcar do Carmo Lucas, member and packager of the KDevelop team. "It allows users and programmers alike to fix downstream issues, speeding even more the process of getting bug fixes and new features to the general public."

Making Community Contributions Easier

By enabling direct contributions from developers, the Build Service is adding transparency to the development process and helping to enhance the community's ability to contribute to openSUSE.

The openSUSE Build Service is unique in that it is the only build service that enables developers to create and maintain packages for many Linux distributions, including openSUSE, SUSE® Linux Enterprise from Novell®, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, Red Hat and Ubuntu. ?The openSUSE Build Service makes it easier for upstream projects to build packages for new releases of multiple Linux distributions and also offer new releases of their software for older Linux distributions.

"The openSUSE Build Service enables independent software vendors, like Open-Xchange, to more easily and effectively embrace Linux since building and packaging applications for any distribution becomes a one-time effort," says Juergen Geck, chief technology officer at Open-Xchange. "Now, we can configure a package once, reproduce it and test automatically. Using openSUSE helps to create fully tested, ready to run builds for all relevant Linux platforms automatically."

For developers, openSUSE Build Service 1.0 will make contributing to all parts of the openSUSE distribution easier, including code, documentation, graphics and translations. Some of the new functions available in the Build Service are:

• Streamlined package search - Anyone can find a package's working copy as maintained by the official packager or packaging team. Contributors can submit changes against the working copy.
• Notifications - A submission handling and notification system has been put in place, allowing contributors to request merges of their changes to a project.
• Stronger quality assurance - Quality assurance happens before contributions are merged. Test builds of a suggested change are accessible to anyone.
• Improved branch handling - It is easy to set up a branch of a package. The branch will build in the same way as the original package, but can be modified.
• Better source handling – It is now possible to maintain a branch, and modifications are stored without creating a full copy. This makes it easier to maintain features based on the latest copy of the package. The Build Service builds the latest packages, including modifications, automatically.

Most of the new features for developers can be accessed through the Web interface at www.opensuse.org, with additional features available through the various openSUSE Build Service clients. The openSUSE Build Service team has also introduced many smaller improvements and bug fixes to make the system more scalable and usable.

"The openSUSE Build Service Team has done a fantastic job," says openSUSE community manager Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier. "They have laid a foundation that will enable the openSUSE community to work together more efficiently and effectively."