Debusine

Debian-specific cloud-powered continuous integration platform

What is Debusine?

Debusine is a modern cloud-powered continuous integration platform to run many packaging and distribution related workflows for the Debian ecosystem. It can be used to automate everything from the package build up to the generation of installer/disk/cloud/container images, including all the intermediary QA checks. It is very versatile and easy to extend to cater to custom requirements.

It was built by Freexian to modernize Debian’s infrastructure, with initial support from the German government (through the Sovereign Tech Agency). The people behind this development have a track record of building lasting infrastructure like Ubuntu’s Launchpad or Debian’s Package Tracker.

Freexian is developing Debusine in the open and licensing it under the terms of the GPLv3. While it is and will continue to be possible for anyone to run Debusine on their own infrastructure without any licensing costs, Freexian also offers it as a SaaS product on debusine.freexian.com. This supports continued development of the software by the Debian developers that created it, and frees users from the complex system administration work involved in running a fleet of workers covering multiple architectures.

How can Debusine help you?

As a Debian system administrator

Set up a validation workflow between vendor-provided updates and deployment onto your production servers.
Maintain production-level Debian packages with custom patches tailored to your specific needs. Benefits from automated builds out of git repositories and notifications when an update needs to be made. Ensure your changes do not break anything with automated tests that are also run on reverse dependencies.
Create custom cloud/container images and installation media for automated deployments.

As a Debian derivative

Avoid the hassle of setting up and maintaining all the servers to build packages, images, to host the package repository, etc.
Forget about your nightmarish CI configuration files to automate your Debian packaging workflow across your target platform matrix.
Improve your development workflows to detect problems before they reach the package repository and users.
Add support for arm64/armhf/armel architectures.
Implement UEFI Secure Boot to protect your users.
And much more… Debusine is really built for you!

As a software vendor

Provide first-class Debian packages of your software for all Debian/Ubuntu releases (and even more Debian derivatives if you wish).
Automatically test your custom Debian package in a large set of Debian/Ubuntu releases.
Extend your QA tests to also run on non-x86 architectures like arm64, armhf or armel.
Build your entire CI/CD pipeline with Debusine. Automatically build each component out of git, upload the results in staging repositories, validate the behaviour of the resulting combination of packages, and release to users.

How can we work together?

Debusine is very modular: it has many building blocks that can be combined to achieve various workflows. It is thus powerful but requires some non-trivial integration work that is currently out of reach for a self-serve service.

Freexian has a team of world-class experts in packaging & CI/CD workflows, reach out to us at sales@freexian.com for a free consultation and we can make a custom offer to set up a space for your organization on debusine.freexian.com that would accommodate your organization's needs.

If that process identifies needs that can’t be met by Debusine, we can make an offer to develop the required features. We welcome such custom development projects, because that’s how free software evolves to satisfy the requirements of an ever growing audience of users.