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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]
61 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
62 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
63 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
64 clean target is called[7.6]
65 - A new apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
66 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
68 - The section on required man pages has been changed. Missing
69 manual pages for programs are a bug. [13.1]
73 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
74 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [11.6]
75 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
77 - task packages are now not permitted; tasks are now created by a
78 special Tasks: field in the control file. [2.3.8]
79 - window managers that support netwm now can added 20 points when
80 they add themselves as an alternative for
81 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [12.8.4]
82 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
83 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. These were actually
84 introduced in 3.5.6, but I forgot to mention them here. [7]
85 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
86 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
87 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
88 environment variable. [11.1]
89 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
90 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
91 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
92 review the new rules. [7.6, 5.2]
93 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintiner
94 scripts. Long rationale. [9]
98 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
99 standard packages [2.2]
100 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
101 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [12.5]
102 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
103 a ``serious'' policy violation
104 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
105 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
106 the //localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
107 ask permission to expose that information during the install [12.5]
112 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
113 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
114 symlinks or .so pages to do this [13.1]
115 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
116 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
117 by scripts; see section 11.7.3 for the whole story]
118 - Included a new section 11.9.1 describing the use of
119 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
120 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
121 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
122 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
124 - X Windows related things:
125 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
127 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [12.8.3]
128 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
129 fonts for the X Window System [12.8.5]
130 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [12.8.6]
131 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
132 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [12.8.7]
133 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
134 OSF/Motif-linked ones [12.8.8]
139 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
140 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
141 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
143 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
144 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
150 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
151 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
152 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
153 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
154 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc//<package>/examples as
160 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
161 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [12.8.6]
166 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
167 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [9.1]
172 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
173 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [12.8.5]
178 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
179 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
180 /etc/default/; see [10.3.2] for details
181 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
182 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
183 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
184 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [13.3]
185 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
191 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
192 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
193 and the other without [12.8.1]
198 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
199 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
200 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [11.1]
201 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
202 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
203 should always be generated for the upstream changes [13.8]
204 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (4.x)
205 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
206 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
208 - X server (virtual package xserver) [12.8.2]
209 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [12.8.3]
210 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
211 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
212 calculation guidelines) [12.8.4]
213 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
214 - X application defaults [12.8.6]
215 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
216 has been clarified; see [12.8.7]
217 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
218 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
219 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
225 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
226 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
231 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
232 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
233 and prerm scripts. Details are in [13.4]
234 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
235 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
236 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
237 update-rc.d instead) [10.3.4]
238 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
239 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
240 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
241 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
242 incompatible way.) [10.3.3]
243 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
244 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
245 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [13.7]
246 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
248 - Added MIME sub-policy document [10.7; mime-policy]
249 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
250 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
251 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
253 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
254 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
255 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [13.8]
256 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
262 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
263 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
264 .la files must go in the run-time library package [11.2]
269 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
270 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
271 not all known. [10.1]
272 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
273 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [2.4.1]
274 - The location of the GPL has changed to
275 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
276 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
277 other major licenses [13.6]
278 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
279 include the .la files in the -dev packages [11.2]
280 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [11.8]
281 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
283 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
284 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [10.6; menu-policy]
285 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
286 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [12.3]
292 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
293 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
294 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
295 Section 5 and Section 6.
296 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
297 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
298 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
299 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
300 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
302 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
303 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
304 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
305 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
306 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
307 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
308 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
309 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
310 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
311 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
312 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
318 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
319 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
320 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
321 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
323 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
324 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
325 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
328 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
329 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
330 installs shared libraries
331 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
335 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
336 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
337 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
339 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
340 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
343 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
344 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
345 file extension as the referenced file
347 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
348 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
350 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
351 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
352 start, stop, restart, force-reload
353 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
356 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
357 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
358 be installed into /etc/cron.d
360 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
361 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
362 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
363 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
366 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
367 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
370 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
371 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
372 reasonable default configuration
374 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
375 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
376 by all news servers and clients
378 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
379 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
380 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
381 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
382 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
384 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
385 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
388 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 97
390 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
391 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
393 * updated section about `Configuration files':
394 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
396 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
400 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
403 where <arch> is one of the following:
404 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
406 * detailed rules for /usr/local
410 * editor/pager policy
416 * don't install shared libraries as executable
418 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
420 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 97
422 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
427 * "Standard for Console Messages"
429 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
431 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
433 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 96
435 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
439 * No hard links in source packages
441 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
443 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
447 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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