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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 * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
58 anything, even the end of a part. [5.6.12]
59 * Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
60 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
61 logical operators. [10.4]
63 * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
64 should to a must) [6.1]
66 * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
69 * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
70 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
71 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
72 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
73 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
74 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
75 of the process. [10.2]
76 * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
77 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
78 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
81 * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
82 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
83 perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
84 * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
85 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
86 * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
87 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
88 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
90 * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
91 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
92 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
93 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
94 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
95 as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
96 * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
97 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
98 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
100 * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
101 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
102 constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
103 * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
104 using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
105 /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
106 [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
110 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
111 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
112 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
113 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
114 * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
115 allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
118 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
119 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
123 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
124 the minor version number:
125 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
126 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
127 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
128 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
129 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
130 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
131 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
132 deb-building tool-chain.
133 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
134 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
135 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
136 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
137 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
138 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
139 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
140 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
141 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
142 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
143 sections about changelog files.
144 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
146 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
147 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
148 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
149 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
154 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
155 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
156 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
157 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
158 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
163 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
164 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
165 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
166 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
167 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
168 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
169 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
170 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
171 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
172 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
177 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
178 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
179 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
180 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
181 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
182 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
183 clean target is called. [7.6]
184 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
185 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
187 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
188 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
189 are still a bug. [12.1]
193 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
194 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
195 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
197 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
198 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
199 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
200 they add themselves as an alternative for
201 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
202 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
203 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
204 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
205 environment variable. [10.1]
206 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
207 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
208 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
209 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
210 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
211 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
212 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
213 build rules, please see below]
217 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
218 standard packages [2.5]
219 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
220 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
221 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
222 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
223 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
224 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
225 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
226 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
227 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
228 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
233 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
234 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
235 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
236 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
237 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
238 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
239 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
240 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
241 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
242 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
243 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
245 - X Windows related things:
246 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
248 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
249 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
250 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
251 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
252 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
253 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
254 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
255 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
260 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
261 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
262 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
264 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
265 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
271 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
272 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
273 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
274 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
275 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
281 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
282 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
287 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
288 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
293 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
294 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
299 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
300 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
301 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
302 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
303 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
304 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
305 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
306 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
312 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
313 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
314 and the other without [11.8.1]
319 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
320 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
321 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
322 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
323 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
324 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
325 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
326 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
327 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
329 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
330 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
331 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
332 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
333 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
334 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
335 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
336 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
337 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
338 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
339 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
340 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
346 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
347 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
352 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
353 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
354 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
355 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
356 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
357 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
358 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
359 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
360 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
361 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
362 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
363 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
364 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
365 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
366 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
367 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
369 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
370 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
371 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
372 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
374 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
375 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
376 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
377 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
383 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
384 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
385 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
390 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
391 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
393 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
394 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
395 - The location of the GPL has changed to
396 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
397 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
398 other major licenses [12.6]
399 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
400 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
401 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
402 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
404 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
405 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
406 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
407 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
410 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
416 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
417 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
418 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
419 Section 5 and Section 6.
420 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
421 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
422 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
423 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
424 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
426 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
427 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
428 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
429 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
430 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
431 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
432 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
433 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
434 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
435 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
436 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
442 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
443 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
444 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
445 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
447 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
448 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
449 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
452 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
453 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
454 installs shared libraries
455 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
459 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
460 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
461 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
463 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
464 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
467 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
468 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
469 file extension as the referenced file
471 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
472 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
474 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
475 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
476 start, stop, restart, force-reload
477 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
480 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
481 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
482 be installed into /etc/cron.d
484 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
485 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
486 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
487 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
490 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
491 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
494 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
495 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
496 reasonable default configuration
498 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
499 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
500 by all news servers and clients
502 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
503 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
504 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
505 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
506 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
508 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
509 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
512 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
514 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
515 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
517 * updated section about `Configuration files':
518 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
520 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
524 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
527 where <arch> is one of the following:
528 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
530 * detailed rules for /usr/local
534 * editor/pager policy
540 * don't install shared libraries as executable
542 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
544 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
546 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
551 * "Standard for Console Messages"
553 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
555 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
557 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
559 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
563 * No hard links in source packages
565 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
567 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
571 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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