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8 <title>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</title>
12 <h1>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</h1>
14 <h2>About the checklist</h2>
17 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
18 of old packages. Note that this list is not `official'; it simply
19 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
20 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
21 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
22 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
23 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
24 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
25 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
26 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
27 used below refer to the current version.
31 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
32 package complies with currently (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
33 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
34 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
35 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
36 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
37 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
38 picking your way through this list.
41 <h2>The checklist</h2>
46 * The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
47 http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html
48 for the list of new changes and what sections packages should be
50 * The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
51 common-licenses and should be referenced from there. [12.5]
55 * Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
56 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
57 in essential forever unless significant work is done. [3.8]
58 * Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8. [4.4]
59 * Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
61 * Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
62 changelog format for the Debian Archive. [4.4.1]
63 * New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
64 test suite provided by the package should not be run. [4.9.1]
65 * All control files must be encoded in UTF-8. [5.1]
66 * debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
67 preceding whitespace. [5.2]
68 * Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
69 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by /bin/sh regardless of
70 the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
71 behavior of the init system in Debian. [9.3]
72 * The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
73 start the daemon again if it's already running. [9.3.2]
74 * /var/run and /var/lock may be mounted as temporary filesystems, and
75 init scripts must therefore create any necessary subdirectories
77 * /bin/sh scripts may assume that local can take multiple variable
78 arguments and supports assignment. [10.4]
79 * User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
80 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail. [11.6]
84 * The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
85 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
86 system is now defined by priority. [2.4, 3.7]
87 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
88 a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
89 else is necessary. [4.9]
90 * Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
91 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
92 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
93 unknown flags be ignored. [4.9.1, 10.1]
94 * Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
95 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
96 processes if the package supports it [4.9.1]
97 * Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
98 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
100 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
101 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
102 debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
103 source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
104 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
105 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
107 * The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped. [5.6.3]
108 * An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
109 a version number. [5.6.12]
110 * New Homepage field for upstream web sites. [5.6.23]
111 * The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
112 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
113 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
114 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it. [6.5, 6.6, 7]
115 * Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
116 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
117 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
118 common in Debian. [8.1, 8.2]
119 * Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
120 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
122 * Packages providing /etc/X11/Xresources files need not conflict with
123 xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2), which is long-obsolete. [11.8.6]
124 * Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
125 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
126 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
127 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
128 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
129 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
131 * The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
132 referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
133 * Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
134 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
136 * Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names. [debconf]
140 * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
141 anything, even the end of a part. [5.6.12]
142 * Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
143 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
144 logical operators. [10.4]
145 * The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
146 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
148 * Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
149 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
150 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
151 sections would be more appropriate. [menu policy]
152 * The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
153 in parentheses. [5.6.1]
154 * The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
155 critical, or emergency. [5.6.17]
156 * The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
157 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
158 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
160 * Packages following the Debian Configuration management
161 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
162 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf. [3.9.1]
163 * GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
164 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
168 * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
169 should to a must) [6.1]
173 * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
177 * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
178 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
179 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
180 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
181 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
182 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
183 of the process. [10.2]
184 * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
185 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
186 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
190 * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
191 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
192 perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
193 * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
194 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
195 * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
196 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
197 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
199 * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
200 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
201 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
202 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
203 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
204 as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
205 * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
206 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
207 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
209 * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
210 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
211 constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
212 * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
213 using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
214 /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
215 [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
219 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
220 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
221 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
222 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
223 * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
224 allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
228 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
229 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
233 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
234 the minor version number:
235 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
236 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
237 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
238 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
239 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
240 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
241 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
242 deb-building tool-chain.
243 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
244 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
245 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
246 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
247 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
248 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
249 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
250 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
251 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
252 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
253 sections about changelog files.
254 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
256 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
257 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
258 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
259 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
264 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
265 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
266 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
267 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
268 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
272 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
273 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
274 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
275 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
276 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
277 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
278 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
279 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
280 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
281 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
285 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
286 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
287 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
288 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
289 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
290 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
291 clean target is called. [7.6]
292 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
293 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
295 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
296 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
297 are still a bug. [12.1]
301 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
302 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
303 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
305 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
306 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
307 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
308 they add themselves as an alternative for
309 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
310 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
311 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
312 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
313 environment variable. [10.1]
314 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
315 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
316 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
317 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
318 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
319 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
320 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
321 build rules, please see below]
325 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
326 standard packages [2.5]
327 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
328 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
329 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
330 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
331 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
332 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
333 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
334 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
335 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
336 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
340 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
341 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
342 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
343 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
344 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
345 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
346 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
347 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
348 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
349 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
350 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
352 - X Windows related things:
353 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
355 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
356 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
357 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
358 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
359 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
360 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
361 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
362 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
366 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
367 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
368 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
370 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
371 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
376 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
377 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
378 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
379 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
380 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
385 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
386 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
390 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
391 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
395 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
396 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
400 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
401 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
402 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
403 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
404 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
405 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
406 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
407 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
412 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
413 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
414 and the other without [11.8.1]
418 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
419 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
420 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
421 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
422 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
423 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
424 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
425 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
426 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
428 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
429 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
430 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
431 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
432 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
433 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
434 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
435 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
436 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
437 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
438 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
439 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
444 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
445 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
449 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
450 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
451 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
452 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
453 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
454 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
455 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
456 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
457 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
458 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
459 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
460 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
461 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
462 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
463 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
464 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
466 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
467 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
468 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
469 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
471 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
472 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
473 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
474 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
479 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
480 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
481 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
485 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
486 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
488 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
489 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
490 - The location of the GPL has changed to
491 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
492 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
493 other major licenses [12.6]
494 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
495 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
496 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
497 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
499 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
500 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
501 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
502 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
505 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
511 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
512 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
513 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
514 Section 5 and Section 6.
515 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
516 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
517 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
518 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
519 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
521 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
522 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
523 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
524 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
525 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
526 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
527 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
528 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
529 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
530 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
531 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
537 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
538 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
539 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
540 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
542 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
543 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
544 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
547 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
548 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
549 installs shared libraries
550 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
554 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
555 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
556 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
558 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
559 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
562 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
563 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
564 file extension as the referenced file
566 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
567 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
569 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
570 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
571 start, stop, restart, force-reload
572 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
575 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
576 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
577 be installed into /etc/cron.d
579 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
580 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
581 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
582 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
585 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
586 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
589 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
590 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
591 reasonable default configuration
593 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
594 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
595 by all news servers and clients
597 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
598 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
599 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
600 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
601 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
603 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
604 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
607 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
609 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
610 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
612 * updated section about `Configuration files':
613 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
615 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
619 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
622 where <arch> is one of the following:
623 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
625 * detailed rules for /usr/local
629 * editor/pager policy
635 * don't install shared libraries as executable
637 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
639 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
641 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
646 * "Standard for Console Messages"
648 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
650 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
652 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
654 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
658 * No hard links in source packages
660 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
662 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
666 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
674 <!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file
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