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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 : Fri Mar 17 14:31:26 2000
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.' If you have
31 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
32 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
37 Here is how the check list works: Check out which policy version your
38 packages complies with currently. Than move upwards until the top and
39 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. If an
40 item does not give you enough details, please check out the Policy
44 <h2>The checklist</h2>
50 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
51 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
52 package with debugging information optionally.
53 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses html changelog
54 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
55 should always be generated for the upstream changes.
56 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (4.x)
57 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy.
58 - Policy for packages providing an X server has been codified
59 (formalizes existing practice - use virtual package xserver)
60 - Policy for packages providing an X terminal emulator has been
61 codified (use virtual package x-terminal-emulator)
62 - Policy for packages providing an X window manager has been
63 codified (use virtual package x-window-anager, and also as an
64 alternative for /usr/bin/x-window-manager. The policy has
65 guidelines on how to calculate priority)
66 - Policy for packages providing an X fonts has been
67 codified. Please look into the manual for details; this section
68 has been written from scratch.
69 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
70 has been clarified. Please read the manual for details.
71 - Policy for packages providing an X application default has been
75 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
76 always creating theshared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
82 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
83 etc. Should not affect many packages.
88 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
89 /usr/share/doc/<package>. This symlink has to be
90 maintained by postinst and prerm, because dpkg will cause
91 problems otherwise. Create/remote the symlinks using debhelper
92 or see section "6.4. Accessing the documentation" for more
94 - Introduced source dependencies. (Whereas this ought to demand a
95 major policy number rise, we've only just had one of them, so
96 I'm going to use a minor number instead.)
97 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
98 Packages should not be touching this directory, anyway, but
99 should use update-rc.d instead.
100 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
101 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
102 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
103 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
105 - Compiled examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples with
106 symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
107 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself.
108 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
110 - Added MIME sub-policy document.
111 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR.
112 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
113 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
115 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
116 version should also be included. Such a version may be prepared
117 using lynx -dump -nolist.)
120 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
121 added: see section 5.1.
127 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
128 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
129 .la files must go in the run-time library package.
135 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
136 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
138 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
139 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
140 - The location of the GPL has changed to
141 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
142 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
144 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
145 include the .la files in the -dev packages.
146 - Use logrotate to rotate log files
147 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
149 - There is now anassi=ociated menu policy, in a separate document,
150 that carries the full weight of Debian policy.
151 - The files `/var/run/utmp', `/var/log/wtmp' and
152 `/var/log/lastlog' must be installed writeable by group
153 utmp. Programs who need to modify those files must be installed
160 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
161 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
162 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
163 Section 5 and Section 6.
164 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
165 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
166 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
167 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
168 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
170 - Modified the section about changelog files to accomodate
171 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
172 upstream chagelog files should now be accessible as
173 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
174 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
175 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
176 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
177 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
178 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
179 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
180 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
186 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
187 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
188 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
189 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
191 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
192 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
193 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
196 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
197 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
198 installs shared libraries
199 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
203 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
204 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
205 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
207 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
208 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
211 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
212 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
213 file extension as the referenced file
215 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
216 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
218 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
219 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
220 start, stop, restart, force-reload
221 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
224 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
225 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
226 be installed into /etc/cron.d
228 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
229 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
230 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
231 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
234 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
235 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
238 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
239 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
240 reasonable default configuration
242 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
243 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
244 by all news servers and clients
246 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Windows system:
247 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
248 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
249 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
250 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
252 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
253 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
256 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 97
258 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
259 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
261 * updated section about `Configuration files':
262 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
264 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
268 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
271 where <arch> is one of the following:
272 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
274 * detailed rules for /usr/local
278 * editor/pager policy
284 * don't install shared libraries as executable
286 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
288 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 97
290 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
295 * "Standard for Console Messages"
297 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
299 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
301 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 96
303 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
307 * No hard links in source packages
309 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
311 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
315 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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