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13 <title>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</title>
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123 <h1 class="title">Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</h1>
126 <div id="outline-container-1" class="outline-3">
127 <h3 id="sec-1">About the checklist </h3>
128 <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-1">
132 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
133 of old packages. Note that this list is not "official"; it simply
134 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
135 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
136 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
137 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
138 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
139 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
140 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
141 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
142 used below refer to the current version.
145 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
146 package was checked against last (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
147 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
148 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
149 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
150 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
151 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
152 picking your way through this list.
158 <div id="outline-container-2" class="outline-3">
159 <h3 id="sec-2">The checklist </h3>
160 <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-2">
166 <div id="outline-container-2.1" class="outline-4">
167 <h4 id="sec-2.1">3.8.3.0 </h4>
168 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.1">
175 <b>4.9</b> : Add DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables and
176 recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
179 <b>5.6.8</b>: Source package Architecture fields may contain <i>all</i> in
180 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <i>all</i> and <i>any</i>
181 may be used in different versions of the field.
184 <b>5.6.14</b> : The Debian archive software does not support uploading
185 to multiple distributions with one \*.changes file.
188 <b>5.6.19</b> : The Binary field may span multiple lines.
191 <b>10.2</b> : Remove the permission for shared library packages to
192 install libraries in a non-standard location and modify ld.so.conf.
193 Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
194 or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
197 <b>11.8.7</b> : Clarify installation directories for X programs and
198 remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
199 into /usr/include/X11 and /usr/lib/X11.
202 <b>12.1</b> : Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
203 page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
206 <b>12.1</b> : Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
207 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
208 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
212 <b>12.2</b> : install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
213 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
214 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
215 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
216 support partial upgrades.
219 <b>perl</b> : The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
220 Depend and Build-Depend on perl >= 5.6.0-16 has been removed.
228 <div id="outline-container-2.2" class="outline-4">
229 <h4 id="sec-2.2">3.8.2.0 </h4>
230 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.2">
238 <b>2.4</b>: The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
239 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html">http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html</a>
240 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
244 <b>3.9.1</b>: All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
245 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
246 back on other methods.
249 <b>5.6.1</b>: The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
253 <b>9.1</b>: Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
254 FHS permitting /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.
257 <b>9.1.3</b>: Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
261 <b>11.8.5</b>: Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
265 <b>12.5</b>: The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
266 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
274 <div id="outline-container-2.3" class="outline-4">
275 <h4 id="sec-2.3">3.8.1.0 </h4>
276 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.3">
284 <b>3.8</b>: Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
285 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
286 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
289 <b>4.4</b>: Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
292 <b>4.4</b>: Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
296 <b>4.4.1</b>: Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
297 changelog format for the Debian Archive.
300 <b>4.9.1</b>: New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
301 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
304 <b>5.1</b>: All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
307 <b>5.2</b>: debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
308 preceding whitespace.
311 <b>9.3</b>: Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
312 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by /bin/sh regardless of
313 the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
314 behavior of the init system in Debian.
317 <b>9.3.2</b>: The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
318 start the daemon again if it's already running.
321 <b>9.3.2</b>: /var/run and /var/lock may be mounted as temporary filesystems, and
322 init scripts must therefore create any necessary subdirectories
326 <b>10.4</b>: /bin/sh scripts may assume that local can take multiple variable
327 arguments and supports assignment.
330 <b>11.6</b>: User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
331 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
339 <div id="outline-container-2.4" class="outline-4">
340 <h4 id="sec-2.4">3.8.0.0 </h4>
341 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.4">
349 <b>2.4, 3.7</b>: The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
350 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
351 system is now defined by priority.
354 <b>4.9</b>: If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
355 a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
359 <b>4.9.1, 10.1</b>: Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
360 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
361 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
362 unknown flags be ignored.
365 <b>4.9.1</b>: Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
366 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
367 processes if the package supports it
370 <b>4.13</b>: Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
371 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
375 <b>4.14</b>: If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
376 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
377 debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
378 source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
379 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
380 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
384 <b>5.6.3</b>: The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
387 <b>5.6.12</b>: An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
391 <b>5.6.23</b>: New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
394 <b>6.5, 6.6, 7</b>: The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
395 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
396 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
397 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
400 <b>8.1, 8.2</b>: Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
401 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
402 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
406 <b>9.5</b>: Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
407 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
411 <b>11.8.6</b>: Packages providing /etc/X11/Xresources files need not conflict with
412 xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2), which is long-obsolete.
415 <b>12.1</b>: Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
416 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
417 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
418 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
419 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
420 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
424 <b>12.5</b>: The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
425 referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
428 <b>12.5</b>: Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
429 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
433 <b>debconf</b>: Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
441 <div id="outline-container-2.5" class="outline-4">
442 <h4 id="sec-2.5">3.7.3.0 </h4>
443 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.5">
451 <b>5.6.12</b>: Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
452 anything, even the end of a part.
455 <b>10.4</b>: Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
456 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
460 <b>8.5</b>: The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
461 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
465 <b>menu policy</b>: Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
466 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
467 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
468 sections would be more appropriate.
471 <b>5.6.1</b>: The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
475 <b>5.6.17</b>: The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
476 critical, or emergency.
479 <b>8.6</b>: The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
480 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
481 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
485 <b>3.9.1</b>: Packages following the Debian Configuration management
486 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
487 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
490 <b>12.5</b>: GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
491 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
499 <div id="outline-container-2.6" class="outline-4">
500 <h4 id="sec-2.6">3.7.2.2 </h4>
501 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.6">
509 <b>6.1</b>: Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
518 <div id="outline-container-2.7" class="outline-4">
519 <h4 id="sec-2.7">3.7.2.0 </h4>
520 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.7">
528 <b>11.5</b>: Revert the cgi-lib change.
536 <div id="outline-container-2.8" class="outline-4">
537 <h4 id="sec-2.8">3.7.1.0 </h4>
538 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.8">
546 <b>10.2</b>: It is now possible to create shared libraries without
547 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
548 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
549 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
550 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
551 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
555 <b>11.8.7</b>: Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
556 <i>usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11</i>, but if they do so, they
557 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)
565 <div id="outline-container-2.9" class="outline-4">
566 <h4 id="sec-2.9">3.7.0.0 </h4>
567 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.9">
575 <b>11.5</b>: Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
576 them in <i>usr/lib/cgi-lib</i> directories. This location change
577 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
580 <b>11.5</b>: Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
581 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib.
584 <b>9.1.1</b>: The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
585 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
586 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
590 <b>5.1, 5.6.3</b>: All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
591 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
592 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
593 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
594 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
595 as well, to prepare for future changes.
598 <b>10.4</b>: When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
599 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
600 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
604 <b>9.3.3.2</b>: packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
605 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
609 <b>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</b>: We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have
610 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
611 live in <i>usr/share/fonts/X11</i> now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
620 <div id="outline-container-2.10" class="outline-4">
621 <h4 id="sec-2.10">3.6.2.0 </h4>
622 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.10">
630 Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
633 <b>8.1</b>: Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
634 <i>usr/lib</i> or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
635 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
638 <b>11.5</b>: It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
639 allow packages to share image files with the web server
647 <div id="outline-container-2.11" class="outline-4">
648 <h4 id="sec-2.11">3.6.1.0 </h4>
649 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.11">
657 <b>3.10.1</b>: Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
658 user prompts are now deprecated.
666 <div id="outline-container-2.12" class="outline-4">
667 <h4 id="sec-2.12">3.6.0 </h4>
668 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.12">
676 Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
677 the minor version number:
680 Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
681 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
682 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
683 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
684 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
685 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
686 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
687 deb-building tool-chain.
690 Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
691 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
692 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
693 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
696 Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
697 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
698 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
699 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
700 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
701 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
702 sections about changelog files.
705 <b>menu policy</b>: Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
709 <b>C.2.2</b>: Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
712 <b>10.2</b>: shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
713 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
716 <b>7.6</b>: build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
725 <div id="outline-container-2.13" class="outline-4">
726 <h4 id="sec-2.13">3.5.10 </h4>
727 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.13">
735 <b>11.8.3</b>: packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
736 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
740 <b>11.8.4</b>: Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
741 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
749 <div id="outline-container-2.14" class="outline-4">
750 <h4 id="sec-2.14">3.5.9.0 </h4>
751 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.14">
759 <b>3.4.2</b>: The section describing the Description: package field once again has
760 full details of the long description format.
763 <b>4.2</b>: Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
764 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
765 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
768 <b>9.3.2</b>: When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
769 the init script should start the service.
772 <b>12.6</b>: If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
773 example files can be installed into <code>/usr/share/doc/package</code> (rather
774 than <code>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</code>).
782 <div id="outline-container-2.15" class="outline-4">
783 <h4 id="sec-2.15">3.5.8.0 </h4>
784 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.15">
792 <b>12.7</b>: It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
793 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
794 documented in the changelog file.
797 <b>7.6</b>: <code>Build-Depends</code>, <code>Build-Conflicts</code>, <code>Build-Depends-Indep</code>,
798 and <code>Build-Conflicts-Indep</code> must also be satisfied when the clean
802 <b>menu policy</b>: A new Apps/Science menu section is available
805 <b>debconf policy</b>: debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
808 <b>12.1</b>: It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
809 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
818 <div id="outline-container-2.16" class="outline-4">
819 <h4 id="sec-2.16">3.5.7.0 </h4>
820 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.16">
828 Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
829 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
832 <b>2.2.4</b>: cryptographic software may now be included in the main
836 <b>3.9</b>: task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
837 special Tasks: field in the control file.
840 <b>11.8.4</b>: window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
841 they add themselves as an alternative for
842 /usr/bin/x-window-manager
845 <b>10.1</b>: The default compilation options have now changed, one should
846 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
847 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
848 environment variable.
851 <b>7.6, 4.8</b>: Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
852 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
853 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
854 review the new rules.
857 <b>8</b>: Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
858 scripts. Long rationale.
861 <b>Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build rules, please see below</b>
869 <div id="outline-container-2.17" class="outline-4">
870 <h4 id="sec-2.17">3.5.6.0 </h4>
871 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.17">
879 <b>2.5</b>: Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
883 <b>11.5</b>: Programs that access docs need to do so via <i>usr/share/doc, and not via /usr/doc</i> as was the policy previously
886 <b>12.3</b>: Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
887 a ``serious'' policy violation.
890 <b>11.5</b>: For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
891 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
892 the <a href="http://localhost/doc/">http://localhost/doc/</a> directory, then it is preferred that one
893 ask permission to expose that information during the install.
896 <b>7</b>: There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
897 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
905 <div id="outline-container-2.18" class="outline-4">
906 <h4 id="sec-2.18">3.5.5.0 </h4>
907 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.18">
915 <b>12.1</b>: Manpages should not rely on header information to have
916 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
917 symlinks or .so pages to do this
920 *Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
921 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
922 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story*
925 Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
926 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
929 Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
930 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
933 <b>10.2</b>: Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
937 X Windows related things:
940 <b>11.8.1</b>: Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
944 <b>11.8.3</b>: Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved
947 <b>11.8.5</b>: X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
948 fonts for the X Window System
951 <b>11.8.6</b>: Packages must not ship <i>usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</i>
954 <b>11.8.7</b>: X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
955 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
958 <b>11.8.8</b>: OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
959 OSF/Motif-linked ones
969 <div id="outline-container-2.19" class="outline-4">
970 <h4 id="sec-2.19">3.5.4.0 </h4>
971 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.19">
979 <b>11.6</b>: The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
980 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
981 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
985 <b>11.9; perl-policy</b>: The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
986 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
996 <div id="outline-container-2.20" class="outline-4">
997 <h4 id="sec-2.20">3.5.3.0 </h4>
998 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.20">
1004 <b>7.1</b>: Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1005 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1008 <b>10.7.3</b>: Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1009 in /usr/share/&lt;package&gt; or /usr/lib/&lt;package&gt;, with
1010 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;/examples as
1019 <div id="outline-container-2.21" class="outline-4">
1020 <h4 id="sec-2.21">3.5.2.0 </h4>
1021 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.21">
1029 <b>11.8.6</b>: X app-defaults directory has moved from
1030 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults
1038 <div id="outline-container-2.22" class="outline-4">
1039 <h4 id="sec-2.22">3.5.1.0 </h4>
1040 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.22">
1048 <b>8.1</b>: dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1049 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1057 <div id="outline-container-2.23" class="outline-4">
1058 <h4 id="sec-2.23">3.5.0.0 </h4>
1059 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.23">
1067 <b>11.8.5</b>: Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1068 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1076 <div id="outline-container-2.24" class="outline-4">
1077 <h4 id="sec-2.24">3.2.1.1 </h4>
1078 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.24">
1086 Daemon startup scripts in <i>etc/init.d</i> should not contain
1087 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1088 <i>etc/default</i>; see <b>9.3.2] for details + *12.3</b>: Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
1089 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1090 <i>usr/share/&lt;package&gt;</i>, and symbolic links created as required
1091 in <i>usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;</i>
1094 Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1103 <div id="outline-container-2.25" class="outline-4">
1104 <h4 id="sec-2.25">3.2.1.0 </h4>
1105 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.25">
1113 <b>11.8.1</b>: A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1114 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1115 and the other without
1123 <div id="outline-container-2.26" class="outline-4">
1124 <h4 id="sec-2.26">3.2.0.0 </h4>
1125 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.26">
1133 <b>10.1</b>: By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1134 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1135 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
1138 <b>12.8</b>: Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1139 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1140 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1143 Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1144 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1147 Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1151 <b>11.8.2</b>: X server (virtual package xserver)
1154 <b>11.8.3</b>: X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator)
1157 <b>11.8.4</b>: X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1158 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
1159 calculation guidelines)
1162 <b>12.8.5</b>: X fonts (this section has been written from scratch)
1165 <b>11.8.6</b>: X application defaults
1170 <b>11.8.7</b>: Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1171 has been clarified; see
1174 <b>11.7.3</b>: No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles
1177 <b>8</b>: Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1178 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1187 <div id="outline-container-2.27" class="outline-4">
1188 <h4 id="sec-2.27">3.1.1.0 </h4>
1189 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.27">
1197 <b>7.1</b>: Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1198 etc. Should not affect many packages
1206 <div id="outline-container-2.28" class="outline-4">
1207 <h4 id="sec-2.28">3.1.0.0 </h4>
1208 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.28">
1216 /usr/doc/&lt;package&gt; has to be a symlink pointing to
1217 /usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;, to be maintained by postinst
1218 and prerm scripts. Details are in <b>defunct</b>
1221 <b>7.1, 7.6</b>: Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.)
1224 <b>9.3.4</b>: /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
1225 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
1226 update-rc.d instead)
1229 <b>9.3.3</b>: update-rc.d is now the <b>only</b> allowable way of accessing the
1230 /etc/rc?.d/*SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1231 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1232 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1236 <b>12.7</b>: Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/&lt;package&gt;/examples
1237 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;/examples/* or from
1238 /usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;/examples itself
1241 <b>9.1.1</b>: Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
1245 <b>9.7; mime-policy</b>: Added MIME sub-policy document
1248 <b>12.4</b>: VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1251 <b>11.6</b>: Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1252 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1256 <b>12.7</b>: If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1257 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1258 using lynx -dump -nolist.)
1261 <b>3.2.1</b>: Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1270 <div id="outline-container-2.29" class="outline-4">
1271 <h4 id="sec-2.29">3.0.1.0 </h4>
1272 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.29">
1280 <b>10.2</b>: Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1281 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1282 files must go in the run-time library package
1290 <div id="outline-container-2.30" class="outline-4">
1291 <h4 id="sec-2.30">3.0.0.0 </h4>
1292 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.30">
1300 <b>9.1</b>: Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1301 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1305 <b>4.1</b>: Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1306 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1309 <b>12.6</b>: The location of the GPL has changed to
1310 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
1311 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1312 other major licenses
1315 <b>10.2</b>: Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1316 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1319 <b>10.8</b>: Use logrotate to rotate log files
1322 <b>now 11.8</b>: section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1326 <b>9.6; menu-policy</b>: There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1327 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1330 <b>11.3</b>: Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
1331 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp
1335 <b>Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date</b>
1344 <div id="outline-container-2.31" class="outline-4">
1345 <h4 id="sec-2.31">2.5.0.0 </h4>
1346 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.31">
1356 Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1359 Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1360 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1361 Section 5 and Section 6.
1364 What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1365 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1366 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1367 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1368 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1374 Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1375 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
1376 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1377 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
1380 Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1381 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1386 Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1387 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1390 Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1391 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
1394 Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1403 <div id="outline-container-2.32" class="outline-4">
1404 <h4 id="sec-2.32">2.4.1.0 </h4>
1405 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.32">
1412 <li id="sec-2.32.1">Policy Manual: <br/>
1415 Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
1418 symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1419 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1420 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1426 Updated section 4.9 Games:
1429 manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
1430 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1437 <li id="sec-2.32.2">Packaging Manual: <br/>
1440 Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1441 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1442 installs shared libraries
1443 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1453 <div id="outline-container-2.33" class="outline-4">
1454 <h4 id="sec-2.33">2.4.0.0 </h4>
1455 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.33">
1463 Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
1466 /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1469 scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
1473 scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1474 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1481 Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
1484 symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1485 file extension as the referenced file
1491 Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
1494 /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
1500 Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in /etc/init.d:
1503 all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
1504 start, stop, restart, force-reload
1507 the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1514 Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1517 cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1518 be installed into /etc/cron.d
1524 Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1527 removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1528 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1529 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1536 New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1539 details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1546 New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1549 no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1550 reasonable default configuration
1556 New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1559 /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
1560 by all news servers and clients
1566 Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1569 programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1570 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1573 if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1574 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1580 Updated section 4.9 Games:
1583 games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
1594 <div id="outline-container-2.34" class="outline-4">
1595 <h4 id="sec-2.34">2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 </h4>
1596 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.34">
1604 new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1605 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
1609 updated section about `Configuration files':
1610 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1614 MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
1622 <div id="outline-container-2.35" class="outline-4">
1623 <h4 id="sec-2.35">2.2.0.0 Jul </h4>
1624 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.35">
1632 added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1635 where <arch> is one of the following:
1636 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1640 detailed rules for /usr/local
1660 don't install shared libraries as executable
1664 app-defaults files may not be conffiles
1672 <div id="outline-container-2.36" class="outline-4">
1673 <h4 id="sec-2.36">2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 </h4>
1674 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.36">
1682 two programs with different functionality must not have the
1691 "Standard for Console Messages"
1695 Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
1699 Libraries should be stripped with "strip –strip-unneeded"
1707 <div id="outline-container-2.37" class="outline-4">
1708 <h4 id="sec-2.37">2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 </h4>
1709 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.37">
1717 Some changes WRT shared libraries
1725 <div id="outline-container-2.38" class="outline-4">
1726 <h4 id="sec-2.38">2.1.1.0 </h4>
1727 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.38">
1735 No hard links in source packages
1739 Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
1743 Shared libraries must be installed stripped
1751 <div id="outline-container-2.39" class="outline-4">
1752 <h4 id="sec-2.39">2.1.0.0 </h4>
1753 <div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2.39">
1761 Upstream changelog must be installed too
1767 <div id="postamble">
1768 <p class="author"> Author: Bill Allombert, Josip Rodin, Julian Gilbey, Russ Allbery, and Manoj Srivastava
1769 <a href="mailto:srivasta@debian.org"><srivasta@debian.org></a>
1771 <p class="date"> Date: 2009-09-13 04:21:39 CDT</p>
1772 <p class="creator">HTML generated by org-mode 6.30trans in emacs 23</p>