1: http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/org/google/gsoc2011/debian

They should soon be posting to report their progress on Debian’s blog
aggregator Debian Planet [2] and you’re welcome to come talk to them on
#debian-soc on irc.debian.org.

2: http://planet.debian.org

Further details will be posted in the coming days on the related wiki
page [3].

3: http://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2011

The following projects have been accepted:

Automated Multi-Arch Cross-Building and Bootstrapping
by Gustavo Prado Alkmim, mentored by Wookey

Enable easy and automated setup of cross-platform automated build
systems and bootstrapping for QA in the Multi-Arch era. This involves
the creation of multi-stage bootstrap build sequencing tools and a
reliable automated multi-arch cross-builder.

APT/Dpkg Transaction Ordering for Safety and Performance
by Chris Baines, mentored by Michael Vogt

The ordering code in libapt is responsible for ordering the
unpacking/configuration of debs so as to ensure dependencies are
satisfied etc. Currently it organizes the ordering into big batches.
This project further implements an ordering satisfying more constrains
such as “minimal amounts of dpkg invocations”, “minimal amount of
broken packages at any point”.

DebDelta APT Native Integration
by Ishan Jayawardena, mentored by Michael Vogt

Improve user experience of APT and its front-ends by speeding up the
upgrade process. This provides a better framework for unified handling
of debdelta and future APT improvements such as parallelism. Support
for stable and security ugprades as well as multiple APT related
libraries is expected.

Dpkg Declarative Diversions
by Sam Dunne, mentored by Steve Langasek

The dpkg-divert command should be replaced with a new control file with
a declarative syntax which Dpkg will parse and process directly as part
of the package unpack and removal phases, eliminating the problems
resulting from non-atomic handling of diversions.

Backend Tools and Infrastructure for DEX
by Nathan Handler, mentored by Matt Zimmerman

DEX is a new program designed to help improve Debian and its
derivatives by merging in changes made downstream and encouraging
discussions between the various projects. As this is a new project,
most of the infrastructure does not exist (or is rather hackish and
incomplete). This project will create the necessary backend tools and
infrastructure so that all Debian derivatives can easily make use of
the DEX project.

Jigsaw Modularized Java in Debian
by Guillaume Mazoyer, mentored by Tom Marble

The Java Development Kit (JDK) is a big monolithic software tool: many
of its features are only useful in limited areas (GUI toolkits are
useless for a web server). This project will bring the Jigsaw modular
JDK to Debian, helping performance (start-up, size, etc) but also the
dependency resolution (to match Debian packaging). Some work exists
upstream does not fit with Debian. This project will package the
current development version of Jigsaw, update Debian Java Policy, and
create the necessary packaging tools for software depending on it.

Python Multi-Build for Python Extensions Packaging
by Mesutcan Kurt, mentored by Piotr Ozarowski

This project creates a tool to build Python extensions for all Python
versions supported by Debian at the time. The project should detect the
upstream build system and testing frameworks and use them. It will be
interfaced with CDBS and the dh sequencer, replacing their Python
snippets.

Debian Teams Activity Metrics
by Sukhbir Singh, mentored by Andreas Tille

This project will gauge the performance of teams in Debian by measuring
metrics such as: postings on relevant mailing lists, package upload
records from the Ultimate Debian Database and commit statistics from
project repositories… The information gathered will help in
evaluating An interface to access this information easily will also be
developed.

Compute Clusters Integration for Debian Development and Building
by Rudy Godoy, mentored by Steffen Moeller

The project’s main goal is to enable developers to easily use compute
clusters (Eucalyptus, OpenStack…) as environments for arch-specific
development by providing a set of tools they can use to setup and run
an extended platform for their development, testing and building tasks.

About “Google Summer of Code”

“Google Summer of Code” [4] is a global program where university
students are given a stipend to write code for open source projects
over a three month period. Through “Google Summer of Code”, accepted
students are paired with a mentor from the participating projects,
gaining exposure to real-world software development and the opportunity
for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits. Best of
all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit
of all.

4: http://www.google-melange.com

About Debian
————

The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
the largest and most influential open source projects. Over three
thousand volunteers from all over the world work together to create and
maintain Debian software. Translated into over 70 languages, and
supporting a huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the
“universal operating system”.

Contact Information
——————-

For further information, please visit the Debian web pages at
http://www.debian.org/ or send mail to .

“Summer of Code” projects from the past years have provided valuable
contributions to Debian. They have been opportunities for students to
propose innovative new ideas to Debian as well as for developers to
collaborate with students on code critical to Debian. Many successful
students have gone on to become Debian project members.

The range of project themes proposed to students is one of the widest
among all participating organizations, encompassing subjects such as
porting the Debian system to new architectures, improving tools for
package management, extending Debian’s infrastructure and better
integration with other well-known open source projects.

Further information about applying for Google Summer of Code at Debian
can be found at: http://wiki.debian.org/gsoc

About Google Summer of Code
—————————

Google Summer of Code is a global program where university students are
given a stipend to write code for open source projects over a three
month period. Through Google Summer of Code, accepted students are
paired with a mentor from the participating projects, gaining exposure
to real-world software development and the opportunity for employment
in areas related to their academic pursuits. Best of all, more source
code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.

About Debian
————

The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
the largest and most influential open source projects. Over three
thousand volunteers from all over the world work together to create and
maintain Debian software. Translated into over 70 languages, and
supporting a huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the
“universal operating system”.

Contact Information
——————-

For further information, please visit the Debian web pages at
http://www.debian.org/ or send mail to .

- Are you a Debian CONTRIBUTOR who wants to mentor a project?

Please take a look at the proposal template at [2], file all the details and
drop us a email at [4]. You should also subscribe to that list since it is the
is the coordination and discussion mailing list. If you have a possible project
but you are unsure whether it would be adequate for GSoC, please, don’t give up,
mail us and we will try to work with you in making it a proper GSoC project.

If you want to know what entails mentoring a GSoC project you can read this
document [5].

- Are you a STUDENT who would like to do a project?

Start lurking in Debian lists, IRC, and read tons of information on the Debian
wiki and website now!
Before the opening of students proposals, try to get in contact with the mentors
and groups working in the project you are interested by mail, IRC, etc. This is
extremely important if you want to improve your proposal.
There is a proposal template at [2] that you will be asked to complete.

If you are interested in working in a specific area of Debian, you should get
in contact with the people working there as soon as possible and see if your
project idea can work as a Google summer of code project. Early communication
is key to getting to a perfect proposal by the time the submission time is up.

If you want to know what is entailed in being a GSoC student you can read this
document [6].

Do you have any other question? Take a look at our FAQ[7], join us in our IRC
channel #debian-soc (irc.debian.org), or for important stuff, please use the
list so it does not get lost.

[0] http://code.google.com/soc/
[1] http://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2011
[2] http://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode/ProposalTemplate
[3] http://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode/StudentApplicationTemplate
[4] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/soc-coordination
[5] http://code.google.com/p/google-summer-of-code/wiki/AdviceforMentors
[6] http://code.google.com/p/google-summer-of-code/wiki/AdviceforStudents
[7] http://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2011/FAQ

You can watch the list of Debian tasks at:

http://www.google-melange.com/gci/program/list_tasks/google/gci2010

(You will need to filter by Organization: Debian)

The students sign in to that interface to claim tasks and interact (optionally)
with their mentors. The interface is also used by the mentors to mark tasks
as completed.

We need your help:
* suggesting tasks (tasks should generally be detailed, minimizing preliminary
research work students need to do)
* mentoring students in the tasks you suggested, or in general
* joining #debian-soc and helping students there
* latest, and not less important, being nice to our young students when
they ask stuff in random mailing lists or IRC.

For mentoring students in the tasks you suggested, you need to use the web
interface, so you can ‘accept’ the task when the students finish them
and occasionally answer questions if the students choose to use the web
interface.

You do not need to use the web interface for the everyday work of mentoring
students. You can help students via IRC in the #debian-soc channel; help there
would be *very* welcome from all Debian contributors.
There are a lot of students from all timezones asking questions in IRC,
so I repeat, we *need* help, even if you are not an official mentor or
Debian Developer.

If you have any questions, you want to suggest a task, or you want to help
with mentoring in general, please send an email to our mailing list so it
does not get lost:

http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/soc-coordination

Ana Guerrero,
on behalf of the Debian GSoC/GCI team

[1] http://code.google.com/opensource/gci/2010-11/index.html
and http://wiki.debian.org/GoogleCodeIn2010

They should pop up on Debian Planet soon and you’re welcome to come
talk to them on #debian-soc on irc.debian.org

== Aptitude Qt ==
by Piotr Galiszewski, mentored by Sune Vuorela

Qt GUI for aptitude. Currently, KDE users need to use Aptitude via the
console interface, or install the newly developed GTK frontend, which
does not fit well into KDE desktop. Making Qt frontend to Aptitude
would solve this problem and bring an advanced and fully
Debian-compliant graphical package manager to KDE.

== Content-aware Config Files Upgrading ==
by Krzysztof Tyszecki, mentored by Dominique Dumont

When a package deliver configuration files, the problem of merging
user data with new configuration instructions will arise during
package upgrades on users systems. Sometimes merging can be done with
3 way merge, but this process does not insure that the resulting file
is correct or even legal. This project intends to create standards,
tools an heuristics to make the scary config file conflict resolution
debconf prompt a thing of the past.

== Debbugs Bug Reporting and Manipulation API ==
by David Wendt Jr., mentored by Bastian Venthur

Currently debbugs supports a SOAP interface for querying Debian’s Bug
Tracking System. Unfortunately this operation is read-only. This
project would create an API for debbugs which supports sending and
manipulating bug reports, without having to resort to email. This
project does not intend to replace email as mean to manipulate the BTS
but rather to enhance the BTS to allow other means of bug creation and
manipulation.

== Debian High Performance Computing on Clouds ==
by Dominique Belhachemi, mentored by Steffen Moeller

The project paves a way to combine the demands in high performance
computing with the dynamics of compute clouds with Debian. Combining
the Eucalyptus cloud computing infrastructure with the TORQUE resource
manager and preparing the components for dynamically added and removed
instances provides the user with a attractive high performance
computing environment. Such a system allows users to share resources
with large compute centers with minimal changes in their workflow and
scripts.

== Debian-Installer on Neo FreeRunner and Handheld Devices ==
by Thibaut Girka, mentored by Gaudenz Steinlin

This project aims to improve the installation experience of Debian on
handheld devices by replacing ad-hoc install scripts by a full-blown
and adapted Debian-Installer. The Neo FreeRunner is used as it is the
most convenient and open device from a development standpoint, but
other devices will also be explored.

== Hurd port and de-Linux-ization of Debian-Installer ==
by Jérémie Koenig, mentored by Samuel Thibault

The primary means of distributing the Hurd is through Debian GNU/Hurd.
However, the installation CDs presently use an ancient, non-native
installer. The goal of this project is to port the missing parts of
Debian-Installer to Hurd. To achieve this, all problematic
Linux-specific code in Debian-Installer will be replaced by less or
non-kernel dependent code, paving the way for better support of other
non-Linux ports of Debian.

== Multi-Arch support in APT ==
by David Kalnischkies, mentored by Michael Vogt

Hardware like 64bit processors are perfectly able to execute 32bit
opcode but until now this potentiality is disregard as the
infrastructure tools like dpkg and APT are not able to install and/or
solve dependencies across multiple architectures. The project
therefore focuses on enabling APT to work out good solutions in a
MultiArch aware environments without the need of hacky and partly
working biarch packages currently in use.

== Package Repository Analysis and Migration Automation ==
by Ricardo O’Donell, mentored by Neil Williams

Emdebian uses a filter to select packages from the main Debian
repositories that are considered useful to embedded devices, excluding
the majority of packages. The results of processing the filter are
automated but maintaining the filter list is manual. This project
seeks to automate certain elements of the filtering process to cope
with specific conditions. This project will also generalize to more
elaborate and intelligent algorithms to improve the transitions of the
main Debian archives.

== Smart Upload Server for FTP Master ==
by Petr Jasek, mentored by Joerg Jaspert

Making packages upload smarter, more interactive and painless for
uploaders by switching from anonymous FTP and Cron jobs to a robust
protocol and modern package checking and processing daemon. This
daemon would test early and report early, saving developers time.

More details coming soon on

Congratulations everyone and have a fruitful summer!

Arthur

[ signed by zack@d.o, on behalf of Obey Arthur Liu ]