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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 Apr 28 13:36:28 2001
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 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
59 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
60 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
62 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
63 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
69 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
70 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
71 - Examples and templates should now live in
72 /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
73 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc//<package>/examples as
79 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
80 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [12.8]
85 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
86 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [9.1]
91 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
92 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [12.8]
98 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
99 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
100 /etc/default/; see [10.3.2] for details
101 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
102 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
103 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
104 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [13.3]
105 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
111 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
112 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
113 and the other without [12.8]
118 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
119 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
120 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [11.1]
121 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
122 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
123 should always be generated for the upstream changes [13.8]
124 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (4.x)
125 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
126 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
127 has been codified [12.8]:
128 - X server (virtual package xserver)
129 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator)
130 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
131 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
132 calculation guidelines)
133 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch)
134 - X application defaults
135 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
136 has been clarified; see [12.8]
137 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
138 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
139 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
145 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
146 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
151 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
152 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
153 and prerm scripts. Details are in [13.4]
154 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
155 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
156 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
157 update-rc.d instead) [10.3.4]
158 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
159 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
160 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
161 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
162 incompatible way.) [10.3.3]
163 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
164 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
165 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [13.7]
166 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
168 - Added MIME sub-policy document [10.7; mime-policy]
169 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
170 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
171 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
173 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
174 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
175 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [13.8]
176 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
183 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
184 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
185 .la files must go in the run-time library package [11.2]
191 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
192 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
193 not all known. [10.1]
194 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
195 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [2.4.1]
196 - The location of the GPL has changed to
197 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
198 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
199 other major licenses [13.6]
200 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
201 include the .la files in the -dev packages [11.2]
202 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [11.8]
203 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
205 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
206 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [10.6; menu-policy]
207 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
208 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [12.3]
214 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
215 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
216 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
217 Section 5 and Section 6.
218 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
219 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
220 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
221 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
222 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
224 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
225 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
226 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
227 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
228 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
229 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
230 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
231 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
232 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
233 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
234 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
240 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
241 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
242 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
243 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
245 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
246 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
247 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
250 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
251 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
252 installs shared libraries
253 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
257 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
258 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
259 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
261 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
262 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
265 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
266 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
267 file extension as the referenced file
269 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
270 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
272 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
273 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
274 start, stop, restart, force-reload
275 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
278 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
279 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
280 be installed into /etc/cron.d
282 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
283 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
284 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
285 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
288 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
289 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
292 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
293 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
294 reasonable default configuration
296 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
297 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
298 by all news servers and clients
300 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Windows system:
301 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
302 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
303 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
304 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
306 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
307 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
310 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 97
312 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
313 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
315 * updated section about `Configuration files':
316 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
318 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
322 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
325 where <arch> is one of the following:
326 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
328 * detailed rules for /usr/local
332 * editor/pager policy
338 * don't install shared libraries as executable
340 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
342 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 97
344 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
349 * "Standard for Console Messages"
351 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
353 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
355 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 96
357 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
361 * No hard links in source packages
363 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
365 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
369 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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