Streicher Ole

Abstract Reference: 29287
Identifier: P2.20
Presentation: Poster presentation
Key Theme: 2 Management of Scientific and Data Analysis Projects

Debian Astro: An open computing platform for astronomy

Authors:
Streicher Ole

Over the recent years, the amount and quality of software for astronomy has grown significantly. Many traditional software packages have experienced enormous progress. With Astropy, a completely new and coordinated approach was developed. Despite of these developments, a lot of legacy software is still in use, partly based on outdated dependencies, and sometimes even not maintained anymore. The problem that arises is to maintain a consistent integration of the astronomical software packages into a single usable system, while managing their requirements, and providing sensible defaults to the user. Debian Astro is a Debian Pure Blend that aims to distribute the available astronomy software within the Debian operating system. Using Debian as the foundation has unique advantages for end users and developers, e.g. an easy installation and upgrading of packages, an open distribution and development model, or the reproducibility due to the standardized build system. We shall present the current status of Debian Astro and the experiences made in the packaging process. We discuss the various upstream development philosophies and their impact on the integration within a free operating system.