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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 * Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8. [4.4]
47 * Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
49 * Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
50 changelog format for the Debian Archive. [4.4.1]
51 * New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
52 test suite provided by the package should not be run. [4.9.1]
53 * All control files must be encoded in UTF-8. [5.1]
54 * The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
55 start the daemon again if it's already running. [9.3.2]
56 * /bin/sh scripts may assume that local can take multiple variable
57 arguments and supports assignment. [10.4]
61 * The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
62 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
63 system is now defined by priority. [2.4, 3.7]
64 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
65 a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
66 else is necessary. [4.9]
67 * Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
68 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
69 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
70 unknown flags be ignored. [4.9.1, 10.1]
71 * Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
72 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
73 processes if the package supports it [4.9.1]
74 * Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
75 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
77 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
78 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
79 debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
80 source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
81 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
82 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
84 * The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped. [5.6.3]
85 * An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
86 a version number. [5.6.12]
87 * New Homepage field for upstream web sites. [5.6.23]
88 * The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
89 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
90 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
91 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it. [6.5, 6.6, 7]
92 * Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
93 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
94 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
95 common in Debian. [8.1, 8.2]
96 * Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
97 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
99 * Packages providing /etc/X11/Xresources files need not conflict with
100 xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2), which is long-obsolete. [11.8.6]
101 * Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
102 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
103 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
104 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
105 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
106 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
108 * The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
109 referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
110 * Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
111 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
113 * Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names. [debconf]
117 * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
118 anything, even the end of a part. [5.6.12]
119 * Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
120 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
121 logical operators. [10.4]
122 * The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
123 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
125 * Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
126 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
127 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
128 sections would be more appropriate. [menu policy]
129 * The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
130 in parentheses. [5.6.1]
131 * The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
132 critical, or emergency. [5.6.17]
133 * The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
134 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
135 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
137 * Packages following the Debian Configuration management
138 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
139 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf. [3.9.1]
140 * GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
141 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
145 * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
146 should to a must) [6.1]
150 * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
154 * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
155 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
156 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
157 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
158 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
159 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
160 of the process. [10.2]
161 * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
162 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
163 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
167 * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
168 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
169 perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
170 * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
171 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
172 * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
173 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
174 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
176 * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
177 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
178 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
179 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
180 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
181 as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
182 * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
183 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
184 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
186 * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
187 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
188 constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
189 * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
190 using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
191 /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
192 [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
196 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
197 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
198 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
199 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
200 * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
201 allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
205 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
206 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
210 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
211 the minor version number:
212 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
213 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
214 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
215 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
216 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
217 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
218 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
219 deb-building tool-chain.
220 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
221 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
222 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
223 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
224 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
225 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
226 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
227 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
228 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
229 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
230 sections about changelog files.
231 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
233 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
234 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
235 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
236 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
241 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
242 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
243 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
244 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
245 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
249 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
250 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
251 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
252 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
253 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
254 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
255 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
256 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
257 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
258 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
262 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
263 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
264 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
265 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
266 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
267 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
268 clean target is called. [7.6]
269 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
270 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
272 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
273 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
274 are still a bug. [12.1]
278 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
279 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
280 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
282 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
283 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
284 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
285 they add themselves as an alternative for
286 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
287 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
288 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
289 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
290 environment variable. [10.1]
291 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
292 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
293 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
294 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
295 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
296 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
297 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
298 build rules, please see below]
302 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
303 standard packages [2.5]
304 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
305 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
306 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
307 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
308 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
309 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
310 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
311 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
312 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
313 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
317 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
318 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
319 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
320 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
321 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
322 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
323 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
324 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
325 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
326 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
327 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
329 - X Windows related things:
330 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
332 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
333 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
334 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
335 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
336 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
337 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
338 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
339 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
343 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
344 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
345 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
347 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
348 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
353 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
354 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
355 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
356 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
357 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
362 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
363 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
367 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
368 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
372 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
373 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
377 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
378 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
379 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
380 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
381 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
382 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
383 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
384 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
389 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
390 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
391 and the other without [11.8.1]
395 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
396 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
397 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
398 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
399 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
400 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
401 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
402 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
403 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
405 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
406 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
407 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
408 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
409 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
410 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
411 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
412 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
413 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
414 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
415 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
416 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
421 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
422 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
426 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
427 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
428 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
429 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
430 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
431 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
432 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
433 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
434 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
435 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
436 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
437 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
438 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
439 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
440 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
441 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
443 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
444 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
445 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
446 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
448 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
449 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
450 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
451 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
456 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
457 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
458 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
462 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
463 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
465 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
466 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
467 - The location of the GPL has changed to
468 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
469 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
470 other major licenses [12.6]
471 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
472 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
473 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
474 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
476 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
477 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
478 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
479 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
482 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
488 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
489 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
490 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
491 Section 5 and Section 6.
492 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
493 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
494 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
495 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
496 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
498 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
499 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
500 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
501 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
502 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
503 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
504 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
505 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
506 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
507 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
508 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
514 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
515 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
516 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
517 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
519 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
520 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
521 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
524 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
525 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
526 installs shared libraries
527 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
531 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
532 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
533 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
535 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
536 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
539 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
540 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
541 file extension as the referenced file
543 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
544 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
546 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
547 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
548 start, stop, restart, force-reload
549 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
552 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
553 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
554 be installed into /etc/cron.d
556 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
557 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
558 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
559 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
562 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
563 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
566 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
567 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
568 reasonable default configuration
570 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
571 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
572 by all news servers and clients
574 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
575 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
576 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
577 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
578 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
580 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
581 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
584 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
586 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
587 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
589 * updated section about `Configuration files':
590 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
592 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
596 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
599 where <arch> is one of the following:
600 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
602 * detailed rules for /usr/local
606 * editor/pager policy
612 * don't install shared libraries as executable
614 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
616 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
618 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
623 * "Standard for Console Messages"
625 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
627 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
629 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
631 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
635 * No hard links in source packages
637 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
639 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
643 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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