Cross distribution packaging

Creating a software package to easier distribute the software and to make it available for multiple distributions is quite complicated. Multiple installations are needed to create the packages. This also causes a problem, because there is no central instance to control the data, there can be multiple versions of the software package. Most of the time there is also no easy way to update existing installations, as no repositories are available.

The openSUSE BuildService (OBS) offers an easy way to create packages for multiple distributions, e.g. openSUSE, Fedora, Mandriva, Ubuntu and Debian. OBS allows controlling package creation at one single point and moves package creation to a central server, with no need for multiple installations. Also OBS offers the packages in a stand alone repository allowing users to update the installed software when it changes.

This talk will give an introduction to the openSUSE BuildService and will outline the benefits of using OBS. The focus will be on creating one package for multiple distributions.