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5 upgrading-checklist.html
6 Author : Manoj Srivastava ( srivasta@tiamat.datasync.com )
7 Created On : Thu Oct 29 20:54:48 1998
8 Created On Node : tiamat.datasync.com
9 Last Modified By : Manoj Srivastava
10 Last Modified On : Sat Jun 18 00:16:40 2005
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13 Status : Unknown, Use with caution!
20 <title>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</title>
24 <h1>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</h1>
26 <h2>About the checklist</h2>
29 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
30 of old packages. Note that this list is not `official'; it simply
31 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
32 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
33 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
34 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
35 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
36 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
37 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
38 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
39 used below refer to the current version.
43 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
44 package complies with currently (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
45 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
46 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
47 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
48 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
49 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
50 picking your way through this list.
53 <h2>The checklist</h2>
57 * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
58 should to a must) [6.1]
60 * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
63 * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
64 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
65 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
66 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
67 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
68 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
69 of the process. [10.2]
70 * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
71 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
72 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
75 * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
76 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
77 perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
78 * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
79 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
80 * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
81 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
82 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
84 * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
85 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
86 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
87 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
88 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
89 as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
90 * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
91 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
92 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
94 * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
95 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
96 constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
97 * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
98 using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
99 /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
100 [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
104 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
105 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
106 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
107 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
108 * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
109 allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
112 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
113 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
117 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
118 the minor version number:
119 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
120 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
121 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
122 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
123 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
124 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
125 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
126 deb-building tool-chain.
127 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
128 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
129 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
130 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
131 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
132 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
133 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
134 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
135 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
136 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
137 sections about changelog files.
138 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
140 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
141 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
142 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
143 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
148 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
149 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
150 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
151 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
152 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
157 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
158 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
159 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
160 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
161 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
162 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
163 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
164 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
165 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
166 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
171 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
172 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
173 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
174 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
175 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
176 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
177 clean target is called. [7.6]
178 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
179 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
181 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
182 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
183 are still a bug. [12.1]
187 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
188 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
189 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
191 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
192 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
193 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
194 they add themselves as an alternative for
195 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
196 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
197 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
198 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
199 environment variable. [10.1]
200 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
201 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
202 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
203 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
204 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
205 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
206 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
207 build rules, please see below]
211 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
212 standard packages [2.5]
213 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
214 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
215 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
216 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
217 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
218 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
219 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
220 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
221 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
222 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
227 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
228 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
229 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
230 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
231 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
232 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
233 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
234 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
235 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
236 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
237 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
239 - X Windows related things:
240 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
242 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
243 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
244 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
245 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
246 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
247 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
248 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
249 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
254 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
255 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
256 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
258 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
259 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
265 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
266 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
267 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
268 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
269 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
275 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
276 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
281 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
282 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
287 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
288 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
293 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
294 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
295 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
296 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
297 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
298 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
299 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
300 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
306 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
307 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
308 and the other without [11.8.1]
313 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
314 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
315 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
316 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
317 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
318 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
319 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
320 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
321 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
323 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
324 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
325 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
326 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
327 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
328 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
329 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
330 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
331 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
332 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
333 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
334 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
340 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
341 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
346 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
347 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
348 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
349 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
350 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
351 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
352 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
353 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
354 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
355 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
356 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
357 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
358 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
359 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
360 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
361 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
363 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
364 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
365 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
366 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
368 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
369 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
370 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
371 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
377 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
378 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
379 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
384 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
385 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
387 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
388 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
389 - The location of the GPL has changed to
390 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
391 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
392 other major licenses [12.6]
393 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
394 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
395 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
396 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
398 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
399 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
400 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
401 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
404 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
410 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
411 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
412 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
413 Section 5 and Section 6.
414 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
415 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
416 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
417 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
418 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
420 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
421 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
422 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
423 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
424 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
425 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
426 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
427 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
428 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
429 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
430 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
436 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
437 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
438 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
439 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
441 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
442 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
443 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
446 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
447 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
448 installs shared libraries
449 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
453 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
454 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
455 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
457 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
458 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
461 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
462 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
463 file extension as the referenced file
465 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
466 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
468 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
469 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
470 start, stop, restart, force-reload
471 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
474 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
475 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
476 be installed into /etc/cron.d
478 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
479 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
480 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
481 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
484 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
485 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
488 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
489 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
490 reasonable default configuration
492 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
493 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
494 by all news servers and clients
496 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
497 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
498 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
499 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
500 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
502 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
503 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
506 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
508 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
509 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
511 * updated section about `Configuration files':
512 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
514 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
518 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
521 where <arch> is one of the following:
522 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
524 * detailed rules for /usr/local
528 * editor/pager policy
534 * don't install shared libraries as executable
536 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
538 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
540 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
545 * "Standard for Console Messages"
547 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
549 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
551 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
553 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
557 * No hard links in source packages
559 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
561 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
565 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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