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5 upgrading-checklist.html
6 Author : Manoj Srivastava ( srivasta@tiamat.datasync.com )
7 Created On : Thu Oct 29 20:54:48 1998
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20 <title>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</title>
24 <h1>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</h1>
26 <h2>About the checklist</h2>
29 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
30 of old packages. Note that this list is not `official'; it simply
31 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
32 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
33 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
34 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
35 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
36 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
37 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
38 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
39 used below refer to the current version.
43 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
44 package complies with currently (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
45 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
46 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
47 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
48 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
49 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
50 picking your way through this list.
53 <h2>The checklist</h2>
57 * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
58 anything, even the end of a part. [5.6.12]
60 * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
61 should to a must) [6.1]
63 * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
66 * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
67 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
68 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
69 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
70 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
71 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
72 of the process. [10.2]
73 * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
74 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
75 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
78 * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
79 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
80 perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
81 * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
82 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
83 * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
84 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
85 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
87 * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
88 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
89 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
90 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
91 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
92 as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
93 * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
94 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
95 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
97 * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
98 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
99 constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
100 * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
101 using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
102 /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
103 [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
107 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
108 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
109 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
110 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
111 * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
112 allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
115 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
116 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
120 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
121 the minor version number:
122 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
123 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
124 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
125 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
126 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
127 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
128 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
129 deb-building tool-chain.
130 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
131 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
132 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
133 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
134 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
135 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
136 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
137 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
138 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
139 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
140 sections about changelog files.
141 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
143 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
144 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
145 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
146 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
151 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
152 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
153 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
154 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
155 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
160 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
161 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
162 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
163 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
164 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
165 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
166 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
167 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
168 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
169 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
174 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
175 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
176 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
177 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
178 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
179 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
180 clean target is called. [7.6]
181 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
182 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
184 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
185 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
186 are still a bug. [12.1]
190 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
191 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
192 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
194 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
195 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
196 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
197 they add themselves as an alternative for
198 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
199 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
200 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
201 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
202 environment variable. [10.1]
203 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
204 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
205 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
206 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
207 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
208 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
209 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
210 build rules, please see below]
214 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
215 standard packages [2.5]
216 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
217 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
218 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
219 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
220 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
221 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
222 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
223 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
224 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
225 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
230 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
231 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
232 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
233 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
234 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
235 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
236 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
237 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
238 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
239 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
240 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
242 - X Windows related things:
243 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
245 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
246 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
247 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
248 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
249 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
250 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
251 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
252 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
257 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
258 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
259 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
261 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
262 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
268 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
269 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
270 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
271 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
272 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
278 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
279 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
284 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
285 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
290 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
291 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
296 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
297 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
298 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
299 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
300 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
301 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
302 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
303 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
309 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
310 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
311 and the other without [11.8.1]
316 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
317 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
318 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
319 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
320 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
321 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
322 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
323 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
324 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
326 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
327 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
328 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
329 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
330 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
331 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
332 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
333 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
334 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
335 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
336 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
337 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
343 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
344 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
349 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
350 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
351 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
352 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
353 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
354 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
355 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
356 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
357 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
358 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
359 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
360 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
361 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
362 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
363 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
364 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
366 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
367 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
368 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
369 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
371 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
372 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
373 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
374 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
380 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
381 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
382 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
387 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
388 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
390 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
391 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
392 - The location of the GPL has changed to
393 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
394 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
395 other major licenses [12.6]
396 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
397 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
398 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
399 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
401 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
402 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
403 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
404 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
407 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
413 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
414 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
415 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
416 Section 5 and Section 6.
417 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
418 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
419 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
420 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
421 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
423 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
424 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
425 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
426 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
427 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
428 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
429 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
430 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
431 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
432 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
433 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
439 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
440 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
441 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
442 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
444 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
445 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
446 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
449 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
450 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
451 installs shared libraries
452 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
456 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
457 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
458 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
460 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
461 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
464 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
465 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
466 file extension as the referenced file
468 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
469 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
471 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
472 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
473 start, stop, restart, force-reload
474 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
477 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
478 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
479 be installed into /etc/cron.d
481 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
482 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
483 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
484 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
487 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
488 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
491 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
492 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
493 reasonable default configuration
495 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
496 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
497 by all news servers and clients
499 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
500 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
501 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
502 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
503 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
505 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
506 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
509 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
511 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
512 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
514 * updated section about `Configuration files':
515 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
517 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
521 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
524 where <arch> is one of the following:
525 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
527 * detailed rules for /usr/local
531 * editor/pager policy
537 * don't install shared libraries as executable
539 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
541 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
543 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
548 * "Standard for Console Messages"
550 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
552 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
554 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
556 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
560 * No hard links in source packages
562 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
564 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
568 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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