Debian

Debian GNU/Linux is a non-commercial Linux-distribution which is very popular with developers, and has CMUCL packages which are frequently updated. All the software in the main distribution (section) of Debian is DFSG-compliant - they invented the guidelines, after all.

Quite a lot of CL software is in Debian, packaged using the common-lisp-controller system. Look for packages whose names start with ?cl-?. There is the CL-Debian project, that provides information about Common Lisp packaging, various source packages in Darcs repositories and a mailing list.

Extra repositories

Backports.org has packages of recent Common Lisp libraries and implementations for Debian GNU/Linux Sarge on many architectures. Usage instructions can be found here. If you are missing a package or package version there, just contanct René van Bevern.

Extra repositories also exist for Ubuntu releases, where the platform dependent packages are available for i386 only. The lines for your /etc/apt/source.list file look like this: For sarge add

deb http://people.debian.org/~pvaneynd/cl-sarge-packages ./

for ubuntu breezy add deb http://people.debian.org/~pvaneynd/cl-breezy-packages ./

Lisp-related packages

Most Lisp programmers use the latest version of Debian called Sid or unstable. This version of Debian contains:

Implementations

CMUCL
SBCL
OpenMCL
CLisp
GCL
~~acl-installer An installer for AllegroCL~~
~~lw-installer An installer for Lispworks~~

Software packages on CLiki

asdf - asdf is Another System Definition Facility
Binary-types - Binary-types is a Library for accessing binary files with fixed bit-length code-words
CLOCC-PORT - CLOCC includes a library PORT which unifies many things across different implementations, such as socket interfaces, shell access, and gray streams
infix - Infix reader-macro by Mark Kantrowitz
Integrate - Integrate is a package to aid in solving differential equations, currently slightly limited in scope
ODCL - ODCL is a package of utility functions maintained by
XPTEST - XPTEST is a development tool that provides an automated test framework based on Extreme Programming

Other Software packages

Many of these are actually on CLiki, but miss the * (Debian package) topic marker, which would make them show up on the list above. Industrious souls are encouraged to add such markers and delete the corresponsing entry, if any, from this list.

metering from CLOCC [packaged by Christophe]
IMHO [cl-imho package maintained by Adam Di Carlo]
allegroserve [Packaged by Stig E Sandø]
Langband dev-snapshots, very experimental [packaged by Stig E Sandø]
mail-streams? [Christophe]
LISA [Christophe]
quick-arrays [Peter Van Eynde]
memoization [Peter Van Eynde]
series [Peter Van Eynde]
maxima
cl-pdf [Binghe]
cl-postoffice [Kevin Rosenberg]
cl-port [Kevin Rosenberg]
cl-tester [Kevin Rosenberg]
cl-inflate [Kevin Rosenberg]
ilisp [Kevin Rosenberg]
uffi [Kevin Rosenberg]
lml [Kevin Rosenberg]
clsql [Kevin Rosenberg]
cl-who [packaged by Kevin Rosenberg]
cl-html-template [packaged by Kevin Rosenberg]
cl-gd [packaged by Kevin Rosenberg]
sb-screen, SLang terminal support [packaged by René van Bevern]
McCLIM [packaged by Milan Zamazal]

Suggestions/Hints/etc for package creators

Please use a package prefix that helps to track down the package in Debian and dselect in particular. A prefix will hopefully also help wrt inclusion in ordinary Debian and to avoid name conflicts. One such prefix might be ?cl-? for ordinary Common Lisp libraries.
If possible, use :Depends for other systems instead of including them in your package. As an example, the Langband-package should depend on binary-types instead of including them in the its package.
Persons investigating the natures and features of packaging systems, and persons intending to create Debian packages, may be interested in the page here on Debian Packages

Hints for users

When using Debian and the common-lisp-controller version 4, all packages can be loaded using the(clc:clc-require :name) syntax. For example, the cl-infix package can be loaded using(clc:clc-require :infix).
With an implementation that uses the common-lisp-controller you can simply use(clc:clc-require :infix) to load the precompiled version.

Wishlist

CLORB as a debian package which works "right away" in CMUCL and SBCL
Common Music and Common Music Notation. These may require work to get working in CMUCL.
Jochen Schmidt has a number of useful bits of code over at his site.
ECL as a debian package
RegEx-CLAWK-Lexer as a debian package (-- it has been for years, see cl-regex etc. I'd like to know if there is still interest)

Pages in this topic: cl-base64 CLSQL CMUCL on Debian Debian package Kevin Rosenberg

Also linked from: acl-installer Binary-types BSD license Changes in March 2001 cl-html-template CLOCC CLOCC-PORT CloserLookAtHemlock CMUCL common-lisp-controller Craig Brozefsky DFSG document Gentoo Hemlock ILISP Less Recent Changes Lisp Lisp newbie lml lw-installer Matthew Kennedy McCLIM meta mod_lisp ODCL Practical Lisp Programming RT sb-screen Steve Dunham XPTEST

CLiki pages can be edited by anyone at any time. Imagine a fearsomely comprehensive disclaimer of liability. Now fear, comprehensively