1.2.2. Managing the Difference with Debian
As a design decision, we try to minimize the number of forked packages as much as possible. How-
ever, in order to implement some of Kali’s unique features, some changes must be made. To limit
the impact of these changes, we strive to send them upstream, either by integrating the feature di-
rectly, or by adding the required hooks so that it is straightforward to enable the desired features
without further modifying the upstream packages themselves.
The
Kali Package Tracker
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helps us to keep track of our divergence with Debian. At any time, we
can look up which package has been forked and whether it is in sync with Debian, or if an update
is required. All our packages are maintained in
Git repositories
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hosting a Debian branch and a
Kali branch side-by-side. Thanks to this, updating a forked package is a simple two-step process:
update the Debian branch and then merge it into the Kali branch.
While the number of forked packages in Kali is relatively low, the number of additional packages
is rather high: in January 2021 there were almost
500
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. Most of these packages are free software
complying with the
Debian Free Software Guidelines
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and our ultimate goal would be to maintain
those packages within Debian whenever possible. That is why we strive to comply with the
Debian
Policy
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and to follow the good packaging practices used in Debian. Unfortunately, there are also
quite a few exceptions where proper packaging was nearly impossible to create. As a result of
time being scarce, few packages have been pushed to Debian.
