Key concepts

Reference information describing the main building blocks of Ubuntu. These include the standards used for system design and package maintenance, as well as supporting tooling and release-publication principles.

For a comprehensive terminology reference, see the Glossary.

Releasing Ubuntu

Release principles and infrastructure, publication cadence, and support considerations.

• Ubuntu releases
• Upstream and downstream
• Supported architectures
• Launchpad

Software and packaging

Detailed description of the workings of the Ubuntu package archive, as well as package internals and maintenance fundamentals.

• Package archive
• Package format
• Package lifecycle
• Version string format
• Patches
• Phased updates
• DEP 3 - patch file headers
• Debian policy
• debian/ directory

System design

Reference about the directory structure of the distribution.

• Filesystem hierarchy standard