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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 21 13:22:56 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 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
59 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
60 like xterm does. [12.8.3]
61 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
62 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [12.8.4]
67 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
68 full details of the long description format. [5.7.2]
69 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
70 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
71 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [2.4.2]
72 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
73 the init script should start the service. [10.3.2]
74 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
75 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
76 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [13.6]
81 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
82 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
83 documented in the changelog file. [13.7]
84 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
85 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
86 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
87 clean target is called. [7.6]
88 - A new apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
89 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
91 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
92 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
93 are still a bug. [13.1]
97 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
98 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [11.6]
99 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
101 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
102 special Tasks: field in the control file. [2.3.8]
103 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
104 they add themselves as an alternative for
105 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [12.8.4]
106 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
107 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
108 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
109 environment variable. [11.1]
110 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
111 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
112 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
113 review the new rules. [7.6, 5.2]
114 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
115 scripts. Long rationale. [9]
116 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
117 build rules, please see below]
121 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
122 standard packages [2.2]
123 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
124 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [12.5]
125 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
126 a ``serious'' policy violation. [13.3]
127 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
128 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
129 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
130 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [12.5]
131 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
132 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
137 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
138 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
139 symlinks or .so pages to do this [13.1]
140 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
141 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
142 by scripts; see section 11.7.3 for the whole story]
143 - Included a new section 11.9.1 describing the use of
144 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
145 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
146 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
147 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
149 - X Windows related things:
150 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
152 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [12.8.3]
153 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
154 fonts for the X Window System [12.8.5]
155 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [12.8.6]
156 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
157 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [12.8.7]
158 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
159 OSF/Motif-linked ones [12.8.8]
164 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
165 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
166 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
168 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
169 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
175 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
176 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
177 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
178 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
179 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
185 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
186 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [12.8.6]
191 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
192 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [9.1]
197 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
198 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [12.8.5]
203 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
204 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
205 /etc/default/; see [10.3.2] for details
206 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
207 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
208 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
209 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [13.3]
210 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
216 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
217 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
218 and the other without [12.8.1]
223 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
224 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
225 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [11.1]
226 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
227 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
228 should always be generated for the upstream changes [13.8]
229 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (4.x)
230 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
231 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
233 - X server (virtual package xserver) [12.8.2]
234 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [12.8.3]
235 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
236 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
237 calculation guidelines) [12.8.4]
238 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
239 - X application defaults [12.8.6]
240 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
241 has been clarified; see [12.8.7]
242 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
243 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
244 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
250 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
251 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
256 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
257 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
258 and prerm scripts. Details are in [13.4]
259 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
260 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
261 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
262 update-rc.d instead) [10.3.4]
263 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
264 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
265 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
266 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
267 incompatible way.) [10.3.3]
268 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
269 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
270 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [13.7]
271 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
273 - Added MIME sub-policy document [10.7; mime-policy]
274 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
275 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
276 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
278 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
279 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
280 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [13.8]
281 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
287 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
288 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
289 .la files must go in the run-time library package [11.2]
294 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
295 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
296 not all known. [10.1]
297 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
298 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [2.4.1]
299 - The location of the GPL has changed to
300 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
301 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
302 other major licenses [13.6]
303 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
304 include the .la files in the -dev packages [11.2]
305 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [11.8]
306 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
308 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
309 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [10.6; menu-policy]
310 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
311 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [12.3]
317 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
318 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
319 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
320 Section 5 and Section 6.
321 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
322 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
323 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
324 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
325 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
327 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
328 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
329 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
330 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
331 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
332 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
333 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
334 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
335 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
336 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
337 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
343 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
344 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
345 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
346 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
348 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
349 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
350 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
353 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
354 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
355 installs shared libraries
356 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
360 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
361 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
362 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
364 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
365 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
368 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
369 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
370 file extension as the referenced file
372 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
373 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
375 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
376 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
377 start, stop, restart, force-reload
378 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
381 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
382 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
383 be installed into /etc/cron.d
385 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
386 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
387 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
388 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
391 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
392 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
395 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
396 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
397 reasonable default configuration
399 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
400 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
401 by all news servers and clients
403 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
404 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
405 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
406 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
407 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
409 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
410 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
413 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 97
415 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
416 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
418 * updated section about `Configuration files':
419 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
421 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
425 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
428 where <arch> is one of the following:
429 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
431 * detailed rules for /usr/local
435 * editor/pager policy
441 * don't install shared libraries as executable
443 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
445 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 97
447 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
452 * "Standard for Console Messages"
454 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
456 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
458 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 96
460 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
464 * No hard links in source packages
466 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
468 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
472 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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