Stability

The promise, scoped

Keru's definition of stable is direct: the system won't break. But that promise is only honest if it's scoped. Keru guarantees it on the combinations it offers you.

That's what it means for the installer to offer a choice in the first place: each option in install.sh is one Keru has proven builds and boots. The offered set is curated so that it doesn't break. Choice multiplies the test surface — six inits, four libcs, seven filesystems, five kernels, and more produce well over a thousand possible systems. Guaranteeing every one of them is only honest if it's enforced by curation: Keru offers what works.

But you're never locked out

If you pick something that isn't yet proven — a libc and init never tested together, an unmaintained filesystem, an exotic kernel pair — Keru does not stop you. It warns you the combination is unstable and lets you proceed.

"Stability is a guarantee about what we offer, not a jail around the edge of it. If you want to push into the unproven, we tell you the truth and get out of your way."

The full definition, in one line:

The system won't break for any choice Keru offers you; for anything beyond that, Keru warns and steps aside — you stay in control, never blocked.

How the warning shows up

The installer runs a stability check after your selections. Known-risky combinations are flagged before anything is written:

Some of the pairs Keru currently warns about:

Combination	Why it's flagged
uclibc-ng + anything	Pre-0.1, not yet proven to build and boot end to end.
musl + systemd	Systemd and musl are a known-hard pairing.
zfs as root fs	Needs kernel module + ZFS userspace; not yet proven.
reiserfs	Unmaintained; no stable future.

What stability means for choices that work

• Reproducible. The same make.conf builds the same system.
• Predictable. What you chose is what boots. No surprises smuggled in by defaults.
• Kama never lies. The package manager's job is to do exactly what a recipe says — reliably, silently, and correctly.

The honest trade-off

"Extremely stable" and "everything is swappable" pull in opposite directions. Most famously-stable distros (Debian) gain stability by shrinking choice. Keru's stability therefore isn't "fewest things possible" — it's "whatever you chose, it builds and boots predictably, and Keru never hides a risk from you."

← Back to the philosophy