Arch Linux in October 2021 #
Devtools #
A new devtools release is being prepared with it’s most notable changes:
- Now licensed to GPLv3
- devtools now records the used BUILDTOOL / BUILDTOOLVER in BUILDINFO, this is required for when we need to reproduce an old package which was build with a different devtools version then the current. (And devtools changed the CFLAGS, etc.)
- makerepropkg now supports reading BUILDTOOL / BUILDTOOLVER from a BUILDINFO file and use the makepkg.conf from the correct devtools version.
- pacman’s makepkg.conf is synced with new hardening CFLAGS such as
-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wformat -Werror=format-security -fstack-clash-protection -fcf-protection - More missing man pages have been added for archbuild, makechrootpkg, arch-nspawn.
DBScripts #
There has been great progress on debug support for dbscripts, review and testing is very much appreciated.
Dbscripts was moved to Gitlab with Gitlab CI coverage integration.
Keyring #
The archlinux-keyring project gained new tooling called keyringctl to more easily handle the distribution’s chain of trust, identify problems with packager keys and allow for a git-based workflow around addition, signing and revocation of packager and main signing keys. The keyring will become a curated source of truth and removes dependency on remote keyservers.
archlinux-keyring is now also moved to Gitlab with Gitlab CI coverage integration.
aurweb #
Aurweb is being rewritten in Python using FastAPI, an announcement has been posted that the new port can be tested on aur-dev.archlinux.org
The AUR now provides metadata archives of all AUR packages, to offload requests from the AUR RPC interface.
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages-meta-v1.json.gz https://aur.archlinux.org/packages-meta-ext-v1.json.gz
For more information see the post on aur-general.
Arch Linux website #
A MR has been made to make our navbar responsive and in the future archweb (archlinux.org) responsive in this PR. Moving to SASS also makes it easier to get a working dark mode.
Additionally a new archweb release should have a feature to add a note to a package to show why it’s outdated.
releng #
The monthly release artifacts (i.e. installation medium, bootstrap image, iPXE images) can now be built in GitLab CI and are released automatically on a monthly basis in the releng project.
To further automate the release process on the main repository server, arch-release-promotion is about to be tested for the promotion and synchronization of release artifacts in the relevant projects (i.e. releng or arch-boxes). This will enable for a streamlined and automated update of the Arch Linux website with new release information.
A related ticket tracks the work on restructuring the output directory to offer a unified approach to non-package releases on the main repository server in the future.