Sourceware Survey 2026

The Sourceware Project Leadership Committee would like to know who our users are, which hosted projects they feel part of, what services they rely on and what the priorities should be for our budget and new initiatives.

Original instructions: Please feel free to skip any question, for example if you don't use a service or are not interested in a specific service or topic. Each question has an "Other" option where you can add any suggestion you have about improving the Sourceware services.

This survey is one way to give (anonymous) feedback on Sourceware. For other ways to participate or ask more specific questions see the Sourceware organization contact options.

Results: The survey ran from Friday, 20 March to Friday, 3 April. There were 84 responses.

Names and identifying URLs were removed from "Other" responses.

Hosted projects

Project	Count	Percentage
GCC	63	75%
binutils	56	67%
GDB	50	60%
glibc	45	54%
Valgrind	36	43%
elfutils	34	40%
bzip2	30	36%
cygwin	25	30%
newlib	25	30%
dwz	18	21%
libabigail	18	21%
dwarfstd	14	17%
libffi	14	17%
debugedit	10	12%
Systemtap	10	12%
gnu-gabi	9	11%
lvm2	9	11%
annobin	8	10%
gnupoke	8	10%
bunsen	3	4%
cgen	1	1%
insight	0	0%
kawa	0	0%
pacme	0	0%

Other Responses

• openssh
• probably lots of others included with cygwin

Do you use bugzilla?

How	Count	Percentage
I have a bugzilla account	50	60%
I have editbugs privileges/Can edit all aspects of any bug	25	30%
No response	15	18%
I am bugzilla admin/Can edit product components	10	12%
Anonymous read-only	8	10%

Do you use bunsen?

How	Count	Percentage
No response	76	90%
Through https://builder.sourceware.org/testruns	7	8%
Checking out the git database https://sourceware.org/git/bunsendb.git	2	2%
I have an account to submit new test results	1	1%

Do you use mailinglists/mailman

How	Count	Percentage
I am subscribed to one or more lists	64	76%
I post to one or more lists	55	65%
I read archives through pipermail (e.g. https://sourceware.org/mailman/listinfo)	27	32%
I am a mailman list administrator/moderator	11	13%
No response	9	11%

Other Responses

• I read the Cygwin mailing list archives through GMANE.
• I use gmane to read list mail
• I read archives through gmane.io
• I also read archives through inbox.sourceware.org

How do you use inbox.sourceware.org?

How	Count	Percentage
No response	44	52%
I read the archives through https	37	44%
I apply patches through b4	12	14%
I read the lists through imap	5	6%
I read the lists through usenet nntp	5	6%
I clone the lists through git	3	4%
I use the atom feeds	1	1%

Do you use git?

How	Count	Percentage
I clone repos through the anonymous git or https protocol	59	70%
I can push commits through ssh	51	61%
I use cgit on the website	23	27%
I use gitweb on the website	17	20%
No response	14	17%
I use gitolite (cygwin/dwarfstd)	8	10%

Other Responses

• git on sourceforge

Are you a release maintainer or project admin with ssh account

Account	Count	Percentage
No response	69	82%
Personal ssh shell account	13	15%
Admin ssh for a shared project account	7	8%

Other Responses

• Member of overseers.

Do you use rsync?

Use	Count	Percentage
No response	82	98%
For fetching mbox archives	1	1%
For fetching old cvs repositories	0	0%
For fetching old svn archives	0	0%

Other Responses

• mirroring /var/ftp/

Do you use the site local search?

Search	Count	Percentage
No response	65	77%
Cygwin	10	12%
GCC	7	8%
Sourceware	2	2%

Other Responses

• Public inbox search.

Do you use a project wiki/moinmoin?

Wiki	Count	Percentage
No response	47	56%
I have an account/I am in the EditorGroup	26	31%
Read-only	15	18%
I subscribe to and watch wiki page changes	9	11%

How do you use patchwork.sourceware.org?

How	Count	Percentage
No response	55	65%
I browse patches anonymously	17	20%
I have a patchwork account	17	20%
I use the website to fetch patches and apply state changes	11	13%
I use git-pw to browse/apply/change state	9	11%
My project uses a bot that uses the api (e.g. a CICD trybot)	6	7%

Other Responses

• I tried to use it for GCC but didn't find it very usable in the current setup.

How do you use snapshots.sourceware.org?

What	Count	Percentage
No response	69	82%
gcc docs	9	11%
glibc src, manual	7	8%
binutils src	6	7%
valgrind src, html, downloads	6	7%
dwarfstd draft spec	5	6%
gdb src	5	6%
libabigail website, manual, apis	4	5%
elfutils coverage	3	4%
gnupoke src, manual	1	1%

How do you use builder.sourceware.org?

How	Count	Percentage
No response	58	69%
I receive CI emails when something breaks, which I use to fix issue	23	27%
My project defined a build CI pipeline	15	18%
I use the try-bots to do pre-commit CI	8	10%
My project defined a snapshots CD pipeline	7	8%
I receive CI emails that are mostly just false positives	6	7%
I receive CI emails when something breaks, that I just ignore	1	1%

Other Responses

• CI emails generally good, occasional noise e.g. disk space isses

builder.sourceware.org hardware?

What	Count	Percentage
No response	58	69%
x86_64	23	27%
arm64	16	19%
riscv64	12	14%
i686	9	11%
s390x	6	7%
ppc64le	5	6%
ppc64	4	5%
armhf	2	2%

Other Responses

• Nice to have as much variety of hardware and OSes as possible.

Do you use the forge?

How	Count	Percentage
No response	57	68%
I registered an account	22	26%
I maintain a personal fork on the forge	12	14%
I submit merge requests on the forge	8	10%
I use workflow actions on the forge	7	8%
I use the forge anonymous (website or git clone repos)	6	7%
I review merge requests on the forge	4	5%
I am using the Forgejo Swagger API	3	4%

Which mirror services are you using?

Mirror	Count	Percentage
No response	40	48%
GCC Mirror Sites	20	24%
Cygwin Mirror Sites	18	21%
Sourceware Release download mirrors	10	12%
Sourcehut	8	10%
codeberg.org (in progress)	7	8%
archive.org wayback machine	6	7%
Software Heritage	1	1%

Global Cybersecurity Policy Recommendations

What	Count	Percentage
No response	46	55%
EU Cyber Resilience Act	25	30%
git repo integrity (gitsigur)	18	21%
Secure Software Development project policy recommendations	16	19%
US Cybersecurity Executive Orders	12	14%
NIST SP 800-218, NIST SP 800-207 or other NIST recommendations	11	13%
US (or other national) sanctions	10	12%

Other Responses

• More interested as a producer (or checker) of these than as just a consumer.
• Security alerts (and/or Atom/RSS feeds) for/from projects or re packages/releases
• Encryption on US

New initiatives, budget priorities

What	Count	Percentage
No response	45	54%
Forgejo process improvements	22	26%
Modernizing account processes and upload process improvements	16	19%
More isolation of existing services in dedicated VMs	14	17%
Hire a part time junior system administrator	13	15%
Hardware keys for administrators, release managers and developers	9	11%

Other Responses

• Support for sk hardware keys.

Any other services/initiatives you would like to see for Sourceware?

• Thanks to all the admins
• Many thanks for your efforts!
• Signing of commits and artifacts.
• Better integration between patchwork, buildbot and forge CI/Actions.
• it is just fine for the moment
• More effort towards looking at bug backlog and working out fixes. I know there are a lot, but sometimes they languish months or longer without even being looked at. That would be a great thing to not only improve the quality of the Sourceware projects, but also help contributors feel engaged and maybe become more regular contributors.
• Cygwin Windows build/CI/CD environment or cross/Fedora/Wine setup so we could move off using Appveyor and GitHub (issue for some contributors)
• Enable installation, configuration, update, etc., of sshfs via Cygwin Setup, and provide WWW documentation to make it easy for local administrator to succeed with sshfs.
• In general, keep up the good work.

Have you donated to Sourceware?

Donated	Count	Percentage
No	49	58%
No response	27	32%
Yes	8	10%
I will right now!	0	0%