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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
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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 * The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
59 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
60 system is now defined by priority. [2.4, 3.7]
61 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
62 a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
63 else is necessary. [4.9]
64 * Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
65 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
66 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
67 unknown flags be ignored. [4.9.1, 10.1]
68 * Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
69 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
70 processes if the package supports it [4.9.1]
71 * Debian packages should not use convience copies of code from other
72 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
74 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
75 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
76 debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
77 source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
78 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
79 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
81 * The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped. [5.6.3]
82 * New Homepage field for upstream web sites. [5.6.23]
83 * The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
84 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
85 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
86 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it. [6.5, 6.6, 7]
87 * Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
88 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
89 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
90 common in Debian. [8.1, 8.2]
91 * Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
92 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
94 * Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
95 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
96 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
97 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
98 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
99 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
101 * The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
102 referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
103 * Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
104 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
106 * Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names. [debconf]
110 * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
111 anything, even the end of a part. [5.6.12]
112 * Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
113 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
114 logical operators. [10.4]
115 * The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
116 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
118 * Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
119 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
120 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
121 sections would be more appropriate. [menu policy]
122 * The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
123 in parentheses. [5.6.1]
124 * The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
125 critical, or emergency. [5.6.17]
126 * The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
127 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
128 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
130 * Packages following the Debian Configuration management
131 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
132 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf. [3.9.1]
133 * GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
134 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
138 * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
139 should to a must) [6.1]
143 * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
147 * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
148 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
149 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
150 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
151 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
152 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
153 of the process. [10.2]
154 * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
155 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
156 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
160 * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
161 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
162 perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
163 * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
164 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
165 * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
166 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
167 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
169 * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
170 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
171 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
172 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
173 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
174 as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
175 * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
176 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
177 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
179 * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
180 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
181 constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
182 * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
183 using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
184 /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
185 [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
189 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
190 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
191 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
192 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
193 * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
194 allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
198 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
199 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
203 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
204 the minor version number:
205 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
206 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
207 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
208 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
209 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
210 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
211 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
212 deb-building tool-chain.
213 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
214 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
215 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
216 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
217 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
218 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
219 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
220 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
221 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
222 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
223 sections about changelog files.
224 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
226 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
227 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
228 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
229 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
234 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
235 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
236 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
237 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
238 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
242 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
243 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
244 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
245 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
246 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
247 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
248 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
249 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
250 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
251 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
255 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
256 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
257 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
258 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
259 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
260 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
261 clean target is called. [7.6]
262 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
263 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
265 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
266 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
267 are still a bug. [12.1]
271 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
272 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
273 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
275 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
276 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
277 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
278 they add themselves as an alternative for
279 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
280 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
281 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
282 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
283 environment variable. [10.1]
284 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
285 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
286 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
287 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
288 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
289 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
290 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
291 build rules, please see below]
295 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
296 standard packages [2.5]
297 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
298 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
299 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
300 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
301 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
302 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
303 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
304 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
305 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
306 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
310 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
311 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
312 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
313 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
314 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
315 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
316 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
317 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
318 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
319 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
320 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
322 - X Windows related things:
323 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
325 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
326 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
327 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
328 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
329 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
330 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
331 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
332 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
336 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
337 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
338 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
340 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
341 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
346 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
347 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
348 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
349 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
350 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
355 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
356 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
360 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
361 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
365 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
366 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
370 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
371 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
372 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
373 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
374 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
375 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
376 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
377 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
382 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
383 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
384 and the other without [11.8.1]
388 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
389 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
390 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
391 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
392 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
393 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
394 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
395 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
396 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
398 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
399 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
400 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
401 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
402 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
403 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
404 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
405 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
406 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
407 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
408 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
409 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
414 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
415 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
419 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
420 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
421 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
422 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
423 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
424 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
425 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
426 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
427 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
428 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
429 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
430 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
431 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
432 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
433 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
434 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
436 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
437 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
438 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
439 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
441 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
442 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
443 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
444 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
449 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
450 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
451 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
455 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
456 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
458 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
459 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
460 - The location of the GPL has changed to
461 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
462 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
463 other major licenses [12.6]
464 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
465 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
466 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
467 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
469 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
470 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
471 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
472 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
475 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
481 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
482 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
483 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
484 Section 5 and Section 6.
485 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
486 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
487 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
488 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
489 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
491 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
492 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
493 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
494 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
495 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
496 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
497 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
498 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
499 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
500 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
501 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
507 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
508 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
509 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
510 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
512 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
513 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
514 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
517 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
518 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
519 installs shared libraries
520 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
524 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
525 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
526 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
528 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
529 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
532 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
533 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
534 file extension as the referenced file
536 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
537 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
539 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
540 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
541 start, stop, restart, force-reload
542 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
545 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
546 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
547 be installed into /etc/cron.d
549 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
550 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
551 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
552 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
555 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
556 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
559 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
560 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
561 reasonable default configuration
563 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
564 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
565 by all news servers and clients
567 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
568 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
569 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
570 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
571 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
573 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
574 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
577 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
579 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
580 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
582 * updated section about `Configuration files':
583 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
585 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
589 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
592 where <arch> is one of the following:
593 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
595 * detailed rules for /usr/local
599 * editor/pager policy
605 * don't install shared libraries as executable
607 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
609 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
611 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
616 * "Standard for Console Messages"
618 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
620 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
622 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
624 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
628 * No hard links in source packages
630 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
632 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
636 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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