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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 7 15:11:50 2003
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 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
59 the minor version number:
60 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
61 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
62 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
63 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
64 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
65 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
66 optional based on the current practice and the behaviour of the
67 deb-building toolchain.
68 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
69 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
70 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
71 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
72 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
73 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
74 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
75 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
76 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
77 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
78 sections about changelog files.
79 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu subpolicy
81 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
82 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
83 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
84 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
89 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
90 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
91 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
92 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
93 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
98 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
99 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
100 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
101 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
102 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
103 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
104 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
105 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
106 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
107 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
112 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
113 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
114 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
115 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
116 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
117 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
118 clean target is called. [7.6]
119 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
120 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
122 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
123 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
124 are still a bug. [12.1]
128 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
129 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
130 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
132 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
133 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
134 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
135 they add themselves as an alternative for
136 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
137 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
138 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
139 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
140 environment variable. [10.1]
141 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
142 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
143 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
144 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.9]
145 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
146 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
147 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
148 build rules, please see below]
152 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
153 standard packages [2.5]
154 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
155 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
156 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
157 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
158 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
159 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
160 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
161 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
162 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
163 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
168 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
169 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
170 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
171 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
172 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
173 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
174 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
175 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
176 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
177 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
178 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
180 - X Windows related things:
181 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
183 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
184 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
185 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
186 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
187 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
188 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
189 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
190 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
195 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
196 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
197 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
199 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
200 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
206 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
207 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
208 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
209 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
210 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
216 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
217 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
222 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
223 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
228 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
229 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
234 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
235 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
236 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
237 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
238 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
239 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
240 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
241 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
247 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
248 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
249 and the other without [11.8.1]
254 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
255 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
256 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
257 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
258 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
259 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
260 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
261 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
262 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
264 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
265 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
266 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
267 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
268 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
269 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
270 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
271 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
272 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
273 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
274 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
275 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
281 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
282 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
287 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
288 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
289 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
290 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
291 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
292 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
293 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
294 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
295 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
296 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
297 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
298 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
299 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
300 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
301 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
302 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
304 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
305 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
306 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
307 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
309 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
310 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
311 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
312 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
318 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
319 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
320 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
325 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
326 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
328 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
329 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
330 - The location of the GPL has changed to
331 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
332 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
333 other major licenses [12.6]
334 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
335 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
336 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
337 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
339 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
340 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
341 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
342 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
348 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
349 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
350 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
351 Section 5 and Section 6.
352 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
353 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
354 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
355 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
356 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
358 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
359 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
360 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
361 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
362 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
363 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
364 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
365 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
366 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
367 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
368 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
374 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
375 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
376 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
377 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
379 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
380 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
381 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
384 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
385 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
386 installs shared libraries
387 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
391 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
392 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
393 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
395 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
396 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
399 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
400 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
401 file extension as the referenced file
403 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
404 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
406 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
407 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
408 start, stop, restart, force-reload
409 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
412 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
413 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
414 be installed into /etc/cron.d
416 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
417 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
418 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
419 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
422 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
423 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
426 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
427 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
428 reasonable default configuration
430 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
431 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
432 by all news servers and clients
434 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
435 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
436 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
437 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
438 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
440 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
441 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
444 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
446 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
447 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
449 * updated section about `Configuration files':
450 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
452 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
456 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
459 where <arch> is one of the following:
460 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
462 * detailed rules for /usr/local
466 * editor/pager policy
472 * don't install shared libraries as executable
474 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
476 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
478 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
483 * "Standard for Console Messages"
485 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
487 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
489 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
491 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
495 * No hard links in source packages
497 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
499 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
503 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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