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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 Oct 26 12:22:40 2002
11 Last Machine Used: glaurung.green-gryphon.com
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>
58 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
59 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
60 documented in the changelog file. [13.7]
64 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
65 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [11.6]
66 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
68 - task packages are now not permitted; tasks are now created by a
69 special Tasks: field in the control file. [2.3.8]
70 - window managers that support netwm now can added 20 points when
71 they add themselves as an alternative for
72 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [12.8.4]
73 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
74 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. These were actually
75 introduced in 3.5.6, but I forgot to mention them here. [7]
76 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
77 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
78 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
79 environment variable. [11.1]
80 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
81 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
82 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
83 review the new rules. [7.6, 5.2]
84 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintiner
85 scripts. Long rationale. [9]
89 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
90 standard packages [2.2]
91 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
92 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [12.5]
93 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
94 a ``serious'' policy violation
95 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
96 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
97 the //localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
98 ask permission to expose that information during the install [12.5]
103 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
104 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
105 symlinks or .so pages to do this [13.1]
106 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
107 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
108 by scripts; see section 11.7.3 for the whole story]
109 - Included a new section 11.9.1 describing the use of
110 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
111 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
112 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
113 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
115 - X Windows related things:
116 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
118 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [12.8.3]
119 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
120 fonts for the X Window System [12.8.5]
121 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [12.8.6]
122 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
123 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [12.8.7]
124 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
125 OSF/Motif-linked ones [12.8.8]
130 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
131 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
132 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
134 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
135 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
141 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
142 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
143 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
144 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
145 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc//<package>/examples as
151 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
152 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [12.8.6]
157 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
158 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [9.1]
163 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
164 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [12.8.5]
169 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
170 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
171 /etc/default/; see [10.3.2] for details
172 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
173 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
174 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
175 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [13.3]
176 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
182 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
183 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
184 and the other without [12.8.1]
189 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
190 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
191 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [11.1]
192 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
193 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
194 should always be generated for the upstream changes [13.8]
195 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (4.x)
196 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
197 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
199 - X server (virtual package xserver) [12.8.2]
200 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [12.8.3]
201 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
202 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
203 calculation guidelines) [12.8.4]
204 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
205 - X application defaults [12.8.6]
206 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
207 has been clarified; see [12.8.7]
208 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
209 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
210 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
216 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
217 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
222 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
223 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
224 and prerm scripts. Details are in [13.4]
225 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
226 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
227 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
228 update-rc.d instead) [10.3.4]
229 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
230 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
231 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
232 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
233 incompatible way.) [10.3.3]
234 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
235 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
236 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [13.7]
237 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
239 - Added MIME sub-policy document [10.7; mime-policy]
240 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
241 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
242 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
244 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
245 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
246 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [13.8]
247 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
253 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
254 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
255 .la files must go in the run-time library package [11.2]
260 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
261 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
262 not all known. [10.1]
263 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
264 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [2.4.1]
265 - The location of the GPL has changed to
266 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
267 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
268 other major licenses [13.6]
269 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
270 include the .la files in the -dev packages [11.2]
271 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [11.8]
272 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
274 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
275 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [10.6; menu-policy]
276 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
277 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [12.3]
283 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
284 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
285 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
286 Section 5 and Section 6.
287 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
288 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
289 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
290 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
291 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
293 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
294 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
295 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
296 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
297 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
298 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
299 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
300 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
301 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
302 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
303 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
309 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
310 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
311 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
312 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
314 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
315 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
316 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
319 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
320 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
321 installs shared libraries
322 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
326 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
327 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
328 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
330 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
331 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
334 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
335 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
336 file extension as the referenced file
338 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
339 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
341 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
342 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
343 start, stop, restart, force-reload
344 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
347 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
348 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
349 be installed into /etc/cron.d
351 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
352 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
353 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
354 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
357 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
358 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
361 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
362 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
363 reasonable default configuration
365 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
366 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
367 by all news servers and clients
369 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
370 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
371 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
372 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
373 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
375 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
376 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
379 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 97
381 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
382 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
384 * updated section about `Configuration files':
385 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
387 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
391 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
394 where <arch> is one of the following:
395 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
397 * detailed rules for /usr/local
401 * editor/pager policy
407 * don't install shared libraries as executable
409 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
411 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 97
413 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
418 * "Standard for Console Messages"
420 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
422 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
424 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 96
426 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
430 * No hard links in source packages
432 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
434 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
438 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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