1 debian-policy (2.5.0.0) unstable; urgency=low
3 * AMENDMENT: Added in changes in Bug #25911, which rearranged sections
4 to create a new section 4, namely, files. Section 3.3 ("Files") should
5 become Section 4. The Sections that are currently Section 4 and
6 Section 5 should be moved down to become Section 5 and Section 6
9 What is now Section 5.5 ("Log files") should be moved to be a
10 subsection of the new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8,
11 placing it after "Configuration files", moving the would-be Section
12 4.8 ("Permissions and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the
13 current Section 5 after 5.5 should be accordingly moved down to fill
16 This, along with the next amendment, justifies bumping up the version
17 number. closes: BUG#25911
19 * AMENDMENT: Added in changes in Bug #21185, about the naming and
20 compression of changelog files. Now, if the upstream changelog file is
21 HTML formatted, it should be accessible as
22 /usr/doc/<package>/changelog.html.gz It also allows for this to be a
23 symlink, if the upstream file name does not conform to Debian
24 conventions. closes: BUG#21185
26 * AMENDMENT: Added in changes in Bug #7890, to make clear that the HTML
27 documents should be supplied in _some_ package, not necessarily in the
28 main binary package (at the discretion of the maintainer).
31 * AMENDMENT: Added in changes in Bug #26461, which corrects the policy
32 to refer to /usr/doc/<package>/copyright, rather than
33 /usr/doc/copyright/<package>. closes: BUG#26461
35 * AMENDMENT: Added in changes in Bug #25385, which allow the
36 architecture specification strings to be of the form <arch>-<os>,
37 where os is one of linux, gnu. Previously, only linux was allowed, now
38 we also cater to the hurd. closes: BUG#25385
40 * The responsibility of the contents of this package has now passed to
41 the debian-policy mailing list. The packaging details are now being
42 managed by a group of maintainers that do ot won the contents.
44 * Make the package optional, not extra.
46 * Re did the SGML markup. Normalized the document, and undid the omitted
47 and shor tags. Personally, I use too many DTD's in real life to be so
48 converssant with each one to be clever with tag omissions, and, since
49 I have a smart editor, omitting tags does not byuy one much. In the
50 process, I discovered a few errors in the markup (one of my
51 predecessors hasd the unfortunate habit of treating <p> as a "create
52 some space here" tag, and more often than not put it at the end of a
53 paragraph, rather than using is as a container element (which is what
56 * Re did the control files, making them more robust
58 * re did the rules file, making it more general, and easier to maintain
59 by putting in a layer of abstractions.
62 -- Manoj Srivastava <phil@hands.com> Thu, 29 Oct 1998 15:16:52 -0600
64 debian-policy (2.4.1.4) unstable; urgency=low
66 * New Maintainer <debian-policy@lists.debian.org>
68 -- Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> Sat, 5 Sep 1998 02:41:35 +0100
70 debian-policy (2.4.1.3) unstable; urgency=low
72 * New maintainer (with changes from Adam P. Harris' proposed NMU)
73 * policy.sgml: some awkward phrasings fixed (closes Bug#22006)
74 * policy.sgml: s/depreciated/deprecated (closes Bug#21831)
75 * debian/control: added conflict doc-base (<< 0.6), which I still am not
76 sure why we need this but hey (closes Bug#21554)
77 * policy.sgml: use new <url> tag where appropriate
78 * policy.sgml, debian/control: always dynamically self reference the
79 current version of policy, that is, do not hard code policy revision
81 * debian/rules: use dpkg-gencontrol -isp
82 * bugs fixed in some unknown previous version (closes Bug#23177)
84 -- Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> Tue, 11 Aug 1998 09:54:17 +0100
86 debian-policy (2.4.1.2) frozen unstable; urgency=low
88 * non-maintainer release
89 * rebuild package to fix truncated Chapter 3 (Bug#23408, not marked as
90 important but should be, since a gaping hole in policy is very
92 * bumped version of policy, within the document, to this version number,
93 but not the date, indicating nothing really changed since then
95 * debian/rules: clean is a little cleaner
97 -- Adam P. Harris <aph@debian.org> Tue, 16 Jun 1998 03:15:22 -0400
99 debian-policy (2.4.1.1) frozen unstable; urgency=low
103 -- Christian Schwarz <schwarz@debian.org> Thu, 14 May 1998 21:54:50 +0200
105 debian-policy (2.4.1.0) frozen unstable; urgency=low
107 * Changes to the Debian Policy Manual:
109 - Updated section 3.1.2 Site-specific programs
110 and section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
111 + improved wording (fixes:bug#20129)
113 - Updated section 2.1.7 Subsections:
114 + fixed typos (fixes:bug#18145)
116 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
117 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
118 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
119 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
121 - Updated section 3.4 System run levels:
122 + Intro: mention /etc/rcS.d (links to boot time scripts)
123 + Notes: include rationale why /etc/init.d scripts have to be tagged
124 as conffiles (fixes:bug#16199)
125 + Example: changed example init.d script to handle force-reload
126 and restart options and to comply with the console message
127 standard (fixes:bug#19216)
129 - Updated section 4.8 Emacs lisp programs:
130 + Replaced old section about lisp programs with a reference to
131 the file debian-emacs-policy.gz, installed by the emacsen-common
134 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
135 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
136 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
138 - Removed one example reference to the current standards version
139 - Include manual's date as plain text in the .sgml source so that
140 a recompiled manual uses the same release date
142 * Changes to the authoritative list of virtual package names:
143 - Removed obsolete virtual package `emacs'
145 * New version numbering scheme:
147 - The version numbers are independent of dpkg now, but all policy
148 manuals (the Debian Policy Manual, the Debian Packaging Manual, and
149 the Debian Developer's Reference) share the same version numbering
152 - The first three digits of the version number specify the
153 `Standards-Version.' This number is incremented with each policy
154 change. The fourth digit represents the `patch-level,' which may
155 differ between the manuals.
157 If only the patch-level digit is incremented, no changes in policy
158 have been made, except bug fixes and clarifications. Packages only
159 have to specify the first three digits of the version number in the
160 `Standards-Version' field of their source packages.
164 - Uploaded to frozen and unstable. This is a documentation-only
165 package and the changes to the manual are relevant for hamm.
167 - Fixed FSF's address in copyright file (detected by Lintian)
169 -- Christian Schwarz <schwarz@debian.org> Tue, 14 Apr 1998 10:08:09 +0200
171 debian-policy (2.4.0.0) unstable; urgency=low
173 * Changes to the Debian Policy Manual:
175 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
176 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
177 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
179 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
180 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
183 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
184 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
185 file extension as the referenced file
187 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
188 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
190 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
191 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
192 start, stop, restart, force-reload
193 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
196 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
197 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
198 be installed into /etc/cron.d
200 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
201 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
202 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
203 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
206 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
207 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
210 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
211 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
212 reasonable default configuration
214 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
215 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
216 by all news servers and clients
218 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Windows system:
219 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
220 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
221 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
222 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
224 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
225 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
228 - Lots of typos fixed (thanks to Ray Dassen for the patch!)
230 * Changes to the authoritative list of virtual package names:
231 - added `libc-dev' and `emacsen'
233 * Merged `/usr/doc/debian-policy/changelog-policy.gz' into this
236 * Included `Policy checklist for upgrading your packages' from the
237 Policy Home Page as /usr/doc/debian-policy/upgrading-checklist.text.gz
239 * Added support for doc-base to register the Policy Manual to the
240 online documentation systems dwww and dhelp (fixes:#15710)
242 * Upgraded to standards version 2.4.0.0 (no changes)
244 -- Christian Schwarz <schwarz@debian.org> Fri, 30 Jan 1998 21:58:25 +0100
246 debian-policy (2.3.0.1) unstable; urgency=low
248 * Changes in the Debian Policy Manual:
249 - X library package is now called xlib6g
250 * Changes in the authoritative list of virtual package names:
251 - Added emacs, c-compiler, fortran77-compiler, lambdamoo-core,
253 * Conflict with old dpkg-dev version that included policy manual
255 * Removed `tentative-opt-draft' from package since people considered
256 the draft official policy (which is not the case)
257 * Don't use debstd anymore
259 -- Christian Schwarz <schwarz@debian.org> Tue, 21 Oct 1997 23:03:52 +0200
261 debian-policy (2.3.0.0) unstable; urgency=low
263 * Changes in the Debian Policy Manual:
264 - reworked chapter `The Debian Archive' to cover new
265 contrib/non-free policy
266 - call "contrib" and "non-free" a `section' (not `distribution')
267 - refer to license files (GPL, LGPL, etc.) as uncompressed files
268 - changed `/etc/news/server' into `/etc/nntpserver' in example of
269 maintainer scripts (fixes #11517)
270 - new section about `Daemons'
271 - updated section about `Configuration files'
272 - MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
273 - fixed typos and grammatical errors
274 * Changes in the authoritative list of virtual package names:
275 - renamed tcl/tk virtual package names to `tclsh' and `wish'
276 * Paper about libc6 migration:
277 - fixed typos (fixes #11641), thanks to James Troup for the patch!
278 * SGML source code included in package
279 * don't use `2-up' style for PostScript version (fixes #11095)
281 -- Christian Schwarz <schwarz@debian.org> Mon, 2 Sep 1997 00:54:31 +0200
283 debian-policy (2.2.0.0) unstable; urgency=low
285 * Changes in the Debian Policy Manual:
286 - completely reworked structure
287 - moved sections about new maintainers, upload procedure, interim
288 releases, and mailing lists into the Developers Reference Manual
289 - moved a few (small) sections into the Debian Packaging Manual
290 - removed all those ugly footnotes
291 - new example for "reload" in section about console messages
292 - mention Artistic License (fixes #9793)
293 - don't mention dpkg's version number in Policy Manual
294 - rewrote abstract and section introductions
295 - mention "orphaned packages"
296 - maintainer is responsible for a package license to comply with the
297 distributions' policy
298 - putting a package into base section requires discussion on debian-devel
299 - rewrote sections about "pre-depends", "essential" and, "base" packages
300 - added note that non-us' maintainers have to live outside the US
301 - added crypto-hook statement (fixes #7257)
302 - added section about arch spec strings
303 - rewrote section about "Site specific programs" (/usr/local)
304 - included Ian's suggestions for user IDs
305 - added section about "menus"
306 - removed section about "web menus" since this will be superseded with
307 the new documentation policy soon
308 - incorporated "Debian Free Software Guidelines" (fixes #9024)
309 - removed note that linking with -g produces large a.out binary (fixes
311 - added section about editors and pagers
312 - added note about Package priorities and dependencies
313 - added section about cron jobs (fixes #8814)
314 - added section about device files
315 - don't install shared libraries as executable (fixes #7129)
316 - app-defaults files may not be conffiles (cf. #2717)
317 - lots of minor changes not worth mentioning here (typos, formulations,
319 * Changes in the authoritative list of virtual package names
320 - Removed obsolete virtual packages: xR6shlib, xlibraries,
321 compress, emacs, sgmls, inews, gs_x, gs_svga, gs_both, xpmR6
322 - Added new section about obsolete names
323 * Added Helmut Geyer's paper about libc5-libc6 migration
324 * Fixed package's description
326 -- Christian Schwarz <schwarz@debian.org> Sun, 13 Jul 1997 13:25:51 +0200
328 debian-policy (2.1.3.3) frozen unstable; urgency=low
330 * Mention Artistic License in section 2.5 (bug #9755)
332 -- Christian Schwarz <schwarz@debian.org> Wed, 14 May 1997 16:53:15 +0200
334 debian-policy (2.1.3.2) frozen unstable; urgency=low
336 * Fixed an email address, an URL, and several typos in chapter 6 (#9358)
337 * Added new virtual package "wordlist" to list (requested by Joey Hess)
338 * Changed wording in section about "non-free" packages as suggested
339 by Kai Henningsen (#7076)
341 -- Christian Schwarz <schwarz@debian.org> Mon, 5 May 1997 20:05:39 +0200
343 debian-policy (2.1.3.1) frozen unstable; urgency=low
345 * Fixed bug in chapter 7: `-ur' should read `-us' (#8874)
346 * Fixed bug in chapter 7: `-rwhatever' also needed for rebuild (#8874)
347 * Create a PS and HTML version of the Policy Manual and upload it
349 * Install virtual-package-names-list.text in /usr/doc/debian-policy
350 and upload it "byhand" too.
352 -- Christian Schwarz <schwarz@debian.org> Tue, 29 Apr 1997 18:02:14 +0200
354 debian-policy (2.1.3.0) unstable; urgency=low
357 * New Policy Manager: Christian Schwarz <schwarz@debian.org>
358 * Added section 2.4 about the "non-us" distribution.
359 * Added section 3.1.1 about the "Package" field in the control file.
360 * Added section 3.2.1 about "Binaries": two programs with different
361 functionality must not have the same name.
362 * Changed headline of section 3.2.6 into "Debian changelog and upstream
363 changelog" as suggested by Santiago Vila Doncel <sanvila@unex.es>.
364 * Added log-rotating example to section 3.2.9 that tests with `-sf',
365 as suggested by Boris D. Beletsky <borik@isracom.co.il>.
366 * Added section 3.13: "Webstandard 3.0" by Christoph Lameter.
367 * Added section 3.14: "Standard for Console Messages" by Christian Schwarz.
368 * Split section 4.1 into 4.1.1 (Options for binaries) and 4.1.2 (Options
370 * Added note to 4.1.2: Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
371 to make them compatible with LinuxThreads, by Rob Browning
372 <osiris@cs.utexas.edu>.
373 * Added note to 4.1.2: Libraries should be stripped with
374 "strip --strip-unneeded", by Guy Maor <maor@ece.utexas.edu>.
375 * Section 5.2: Policy changelog is now
376 "/usr/doc/debian-policy/changelog-policy.gz". This fixes bug #6130.
377 * Section 6.2 renamed to "Uploading your first Debian package". This
380 -- Christian Schwarz <schwarz@debian.org> Sat, 15 Mar 1997 18:08:56 +0100
382 debian-manuals (2.1.2.2) frozen unstable;
384 * Fixed even more typographical and grammatical errors in Policy and
386 * Corrected the contact email addresses again.
387 * Added a paragraph to Policy 6.3 on taking over an old package (Guy Maor)
388 * Added a paragraph to Programmer 4.2.14 on listing distributions to load
389 a package into. (Guy Maor)
390 * Further clarification of use of absolute pathnames in scripts in
393 -- David Morris <bweaver@worf.netins.net> Tue, 3 Dec 1996 23:28:04 -0600
395 debian-manuals (2.1.2.1) frozen unstable;
397 * Many editorial and formatting revisions with suggestions from Ian Jackson,
399 * correction of chiark address in Policy 6.2
400 * footnote in Programmers chapter 2 pointing to deb(5) manpage for
401 description of deb file format.
402 * addition of more dpkg examples in Programmer chapter 2
403 * Replace paragraph in Policy 4.1 outlining compiling parameters for
405 * Added paragraph in Programmer 6.1 on paths in maintainer scripts
407 * Cleaned up language and formatting of Programmer's 12.2, shlibs
408 * Corrected contact addresses for listmaster and override-change
410 -- David Morris <bweaver@worf.netins.net> Wed, 27 Nov 1996 08:17:16 -0600
412 debian-manuals (2.1.2.0) frozen unstable;
414 * Mostly editorial changes in Policy Manual.
415 * Added summary of distribution criteria to Introduction
416 * Added section headings for copyright criteria
417 * Fixed typos (Bugs #4485, #4622)
418 * Added paragraph in Compilation Options related to use of shared and
419 static libraries. (Bug #5299)
420 * Paragraph added about where to find PGP and other export restricted
421 packages in section on Procedure
422 * Change in List administrator and in the contact address for becoming
424 * A paragraph added related to who to contact for package maintainer changes.
425 * Changed where to send upload announcements: uploads destined for unstable,
426 frozen, or experimental go to debian-devel-changes.
428 * Made some mostly editorial changes to Programmers Manual.
429 * Added a recommendation to debmake in Introduction.
430 * A further interpretation of the various Distributions is added with
431 the intent of helping people decide which one to choose. (section 4.2.14)
432 * Section 12 on Shared Libraries expanded with further technical information
433 on various shlib files
434 * Section in 2.2 on format of shlib file moved to new subsection within 12.
435 * Paragraph on adding a symlink without version number added to Shared
436 Library Section (Guy Maor, Bug #5299)
438 -- David Morris <bweaver@worf.netins.net> Fri, 22 Nov 1996 23:41:39 -0600
440 debian-manuals (2.1.1.0) unstable;
442 * Hard links are forbidden in source packages (they didn't work anyway,
443 and can't easily be made to work reliably).
444 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation.
446 * Do not need to declare dependencies on Essential packages.
447 * Restrictions on Pre-Depends stated in policy manual.
448 * debian/substvars file is now almost always auto-generated.
449 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped.
450 * Essential and Pre-Depends put together in policy manual.
452 * Explained component-wise (file-wise) vs. package-wise dependencies.
454 -- Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk> Thu, 12 Sep 1996 01:00:41 +0100
456 debian-manuals (2.1.0.0) unstable;
458 * Upstream changelog must be installed too (was just recommended).
460 * Modification to use dpkg-shlibdeps added to conversion instructions.
461 * Packages which are buggy and orphaned but which are preserved for
462 compatibility go in contrib.
464 * Programmers' manual source package section refers to conversion
465 instructions in policy manual.
466 * Make it clear that recommending a non-free or contrib package puts a
469 -- Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk> Sun, 1 Sep 1996 17:47:18 +0100
471 debian-manuals (2.0.1.0) unstable;
473 * varargs.h and libtermcap are obsolete - use stdarg.h and ncurses.
474 * Shared library link/library ordering corrected (aargh).
475 * When to byte-compile Elisp files.
476 * Missing final newlines not represented by dpkg-source.
478 * Must post upload announcements to debian-changes.
479 * Moved some sections into new `configuring and building' chapter.
482 -- Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk> Sat, 31 Aug 1996 20:07:22 +0100
484 debian-manuals (2.0.0.0) unstable;
486 * Footnote added OK'ing copyrights which require name changes.
487 * More detail about changelog format names.
489 * Problematic licence restrictions are formatted as lists.
490 * Mentioned 822-date utility as way to generate RFC822 format dates.
494 -- Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk> Mon, 26 Aug 1996 14:27:34 +0100
496 debian-manuals (0.2.1.1) unstable;
498 * Can't overwrite directories in one package with files in another.
500 -- Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk> Sat, 24 Aug 1996 18:44:54 +0100
502 debian-manuals (0.2.1.0) unstable;
504 * Policy says when and how to include original source in upload.
506 * Need -sa on dpkg-genchanges/dpkg-buildpackage when converting.
508 * Use minor patchlevel for meaning changes which don't affect packages.
509 * More verbosity about netiquette.
510 * Reorganised participation and upload policy: merged with mailing lists.
512 -- Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk> Fri, 23 Aug 1996 12:48:09 +0100
514 debian-manuals (0.2.0.1) experimental;
516 * Said that system administrators' manual does not exist.
518 -- Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk> Fri, 23 Aug 1996 04:05:36 +0100
520 debian-manuals (0.2.0.0) experimental;
524 -- Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk> Wed, 21 Aug 1996 15:07:53 +0100
527 mode: debian-changelog
528 add-log-mailing-address: "phil@hands.com"