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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 start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
47 start the daemon again if it's already running. [9.3.2]
51 * The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
52 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
53 system is now defined by priority. [2.4, 3.7]
54 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
55 a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
56 else is necessary. [4.9]
57 * Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
58 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
59 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
60 unknown flags be ignored. [4.9.1, 10.1]
61 * Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
62 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
63 processes if the package supports it [4.9.1]
64 * Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
65 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
67 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
68 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
69 debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
70 source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
71 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
72 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
74 * The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped. [5.6.3]
75 * An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
76 a version number. [5.6.12]
77 * New Homepage field for upstream web sites. [5.6.23]
78 * The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
79 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
80 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
81 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it. [6.5, 6.6, 7]
82 * Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
83 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
84 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
85 common in Debian. [8.1, 8.2]
86 * Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
87 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
89 * Packages providing /etc/X11/Xresources files need not conflict with
90 xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2), which is long-obsolete. [11.8.6]
91 * Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
92 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
93 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
94 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
95 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
96 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
98 * The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
99 referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
100 * Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
101 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
103 * Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names. [debconf]
107 * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
108 anything, even the end of a part. [5.6.12]
109 * Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
110 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
111 logical operators. [10.4]
112 * The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
113 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
115 * Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
116 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
117 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
118 sections would be more appropriate. [menu policy]
119 * The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
120 in parentheses. [5.6.1]
121 * The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
122 critical, or emergency. [5.6.17]
123 * The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
124 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
125 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
127 * Packages following the Debian Configuration management
128 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
129 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf. [3.9.1]
130 * GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
131 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
135 * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
136 should to a must) [6.1]
140 * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
144 * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
145 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
146 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
147 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
148 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
149 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
150 of the process. [10.2]
151 * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
152 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
153 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
157 * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
158 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
159 perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
160 * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
161 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
162 * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
163 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
164 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
166 * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
167 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
168 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
169 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
170 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
171 as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
172 * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
173 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
174 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
176 * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
177 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
178 constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
179 * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
180 using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
181 /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
182 [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
186 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
187 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
188 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
189 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
190 * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
191 allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
195 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
196 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
200 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
201 the minor version number:
202 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
203 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
204 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
205 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
206 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
207 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
208 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
209 deb-building tool-chain.
210 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
211 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
212 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
213 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
214 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
215 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
216 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
217 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
218 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
219 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
220 sections about changelog files.
221 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
223 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
224 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
225 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
226 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
231 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
232 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
233 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
234 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
235 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
239 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
240 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
241 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
242 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
243 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
244 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
245 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
246 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
247 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
248 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
252 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
253 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
254 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
255 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
256 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
257 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
258 clean target is called. [7.6]
259 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
260 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
262 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
263 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
264 are still a bug. [12.1]
268 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
269 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
270 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
272 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
273 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
274 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
275 they add themselves as an alternative for
276 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
277 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
278 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
279 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
280 environment variable. [10.1]
281 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
282 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
283 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
284 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
285 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
286 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
287 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
288 build rules, please see below]
292 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
293 standard packages [2.5]
294 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
295 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
296 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
297 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
298 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
299 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
300 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
301 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
302 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
303 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
307 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
308 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
309 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
310 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
311 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
312 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
313 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
314 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
315 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
316 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
317 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
319 - X Windows related things:
320 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
322 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
323 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
324 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
325 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
326 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
327 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
328 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
329 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
333 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
334 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
335 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
337 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
338 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
343 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
344 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
345 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
346 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
347 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
352 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
353 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
357 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
358 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
362 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
363 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
367 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
368 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
369 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
370 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
371 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
372 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
373 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
374 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
379 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
380 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
381 and the other without [11.8.1]
385 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
386 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
387 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
388 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
389 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
390 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
391 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
392 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
393 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
395 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
396 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
397 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
398 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
399 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
400 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
401 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
402 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
403 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
404 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
405 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
406 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
411 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
412 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
416 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
417 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
418 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
419 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
420 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
421 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
422 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
423 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
424 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
425 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
426 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
427 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
428 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
429 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
430 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
431 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
433 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
434 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
435 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
436 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
438 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
439 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
440 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
441 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
446 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
447 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
448 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
452 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
453 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
455 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
456 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
457 - The location of the GPL has changed to
458 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
459 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
460 other major licenses [12.6]
461 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
462 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
463 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
464 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
466 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
467 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
468 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
469 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
472 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
478 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
479 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
480 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
481 Section 5 and Section 6.
482 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
483 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
484 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
485 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
486 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
488 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
489 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
490 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
491 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
492 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
493 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
494 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
495 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
496 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
497 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
498 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
504 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
505 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
506 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
507 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
509 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
510 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
511 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
514 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
515 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
516 installs shared libraries
517 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
521 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
522 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
523 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
525 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
526 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
529 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
530 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
531 file extension as the referenced file
533 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
534 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
536 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
537 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
538 start, stop, restart, force-reload
539 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
542 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
543 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
544 be installed into /etc/cron.d
546 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
547 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
548 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
549 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
552 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
553 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
556 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
557 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
558 reasonable default configuration
560 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
561 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
562 by all news servers and clients
564 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
565 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
566 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
567 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
568 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
570 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
571 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
574 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
576 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
577 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
579 * updated section about `Configuration files':
580 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
582 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
586 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
589 where <arch> is one of the following:
590 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
592 * detailed rules for /usr/local
596 * editor/pager policy
602 * don't install shared libraries as executable
604 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
606 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
608 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
613 * "Standard for Console Messages"
615 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
617 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
619 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
621 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
625 * No hard links in source packages
627 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
629 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
633 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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