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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 : Mon Aug 23 14:19:01 2004
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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 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
58 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
59 /usr/lib/ or /usrshare, and preferably the shared lib is named
60 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
63 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
64 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
68 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
69 the minor version number:
70 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
71 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
72 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
73 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
74 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
75 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
76 optional based on the current practice and the behaviour of the
77 deb-building toolchain.
78 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
79 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
80 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
81 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
82 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
83 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
84 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
85 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
86 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
87 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
88 sections about changelog files.
89 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu subpolicy
91 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
92 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
93 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
94 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
99 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
100 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
101 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
102 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
103 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
108 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
109 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
110 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
111 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
112 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
113 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
114 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
115 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
116 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
117 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
122 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
123 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
124 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
125 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
126 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
127 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
128 clean target is called. [7.6]
129 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
130 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
132 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
133 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
134 are still a bug. [12.1]
138 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
139 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
140 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
142 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
143 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
144 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
145 they add themselves as an alternative for
146 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
147 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
148 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
149 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
150 environment variable. [10.1]
151 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
152 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
153 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
154 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
155 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
156 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
157 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
158 build rules, please see below]
162 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
163 standard packages [2.5]
164 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
165 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
166 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
167 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
168 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
169 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
170 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
171 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
172 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
173 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
178 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
179 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
180 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
181 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
182 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
183 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
184 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
185 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
186 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
187 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
188 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
190 - X Windows related things:
191 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
193 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
194 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
195 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
196 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
197 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
198 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
199 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
200 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
205 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
206 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
207 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
209 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
210 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
216 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
217 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
218 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
219 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
220 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
226 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
227 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
232 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
233 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
238 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
239 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
244 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
245 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
246 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
247 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
248 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
249 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
250 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
251 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
257 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
258 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
259 and the other without [11.8.1]
264 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
265 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
266 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
267 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
268 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
269 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
270 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
271 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
272 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
274 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
275 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
276 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
277 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
278 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
279 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
280 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
281 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
282 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
283 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
284 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
285 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
291 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
292 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
297 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
298 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
299 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
300 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
301 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
302 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
303 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
304 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
305 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
306 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
307 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
308 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
309 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
310 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
311 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
312 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
314 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
315 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
316 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
317 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
319 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
320 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
321 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
322 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
328 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
329 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
330 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
335 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
336 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
338 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
339 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
340 - The location of the GPL has changed to
341 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
342 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
343 other major licenses [12.6]
344 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
345 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
346 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
347 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
349 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
350 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
351 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
352 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
355 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
361 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
362 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
363 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
364 Section 5 and Section 6.
365 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
366 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
367 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
368 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
369 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
371 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
372 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
373 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
374 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
375 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
376 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
377 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
378 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
379 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
380 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
381 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
387 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
388 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
389 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
390 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
392 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
393 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
394 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
397 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
398 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
399 installs shared libraries
400 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
404 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
405 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
406 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
408 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
409 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
412 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
413 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
414 file extension as the referenced file
416 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
417 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
419 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
420 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
421 start, stop, restart, force-reload
422 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
425 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
426 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
427 be installed into /etc/cron.d
429 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
430 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
431 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
432 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
435 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
436 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
439 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
440 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
441 reasonable default configuration
443 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
444 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
445 by all news servers and clients
447 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
448 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
449 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
450 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
451 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
453 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
454 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
457 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
459 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
460 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
462 * updated section about `Configuration files':
463 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
465 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
469 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
472 where <arch> is one of the following:
473 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
475 * detailed rules for /usr/local
479 * editor/pager policy
485 * don't install shared libraries as executable
487 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
489 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
491 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
496 * "Standard for Console Messages"
498 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
500 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
502 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
504 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
508 * No hard links in source packages
510 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
512 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
516 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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