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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 * Debian packages should not use convience copies of code from other
58 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
60 * The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped. [5.6.3]
61 * Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
62 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
63 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
64 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
65 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
66 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
69 * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
70 anything, even the end of a part. [5.6.12]
71 * Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
72 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
73 logical operators. [10.4]
74 * The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
75 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
77 * Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
78 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
79 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
80 sections would be more appropriate. [menu policy]
81 * The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
82 in parentheses. [5.6.1]
83 * The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
84 critical, or emergency. [5.6.17]
85 * The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
86 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
87 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
89 * Packages following the Debian Configuration management
90 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
91 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf. [3.9.1]
92 * GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
93 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
95 * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
96 should to a must) [6.1]
98 * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
101 * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
102 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
103 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
104 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
105 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
106 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
107 of the process. [10.2]
108 * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
109 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
110 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
113 * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
114 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
115 perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
116 * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
117 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
118 * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
119 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
120 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
122 * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
123 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
124 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
125 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
126 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
127 as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
128 * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
129 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
130 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
132 * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
133 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
134 constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
135 * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
136 using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
137 /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
138 [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
142 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
143 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
144 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
145 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
146 * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
147 allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
150 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
151 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
155 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
156 the minor version number:
157 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
158 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
159 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
160 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
161 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
162 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
163 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
164 deb-building tool-chain.
165 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
166 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
167 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
168 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
169 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
170 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
171 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
172 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
173 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
174 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
175 sections about changelog files.
176 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
178 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
179 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
180 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
181 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
186 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
187 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
188 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
189 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
190 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
195 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
196 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
197 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
198 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
199 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
200 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
201 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
202 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
203 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
204 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
209 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
210 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
211 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
212 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
213 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
214 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
215 clean target is called. [7.6]
216 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
217 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
219 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
220 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
221 are still a bug. [12.1]
225 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
226 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
227 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
229 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
230 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
231 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
232 they add themselves as an alternative for
233 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
234 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
235 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
236 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
237 environment variable. [10.1]
238 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
239 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
240 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
241 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
242 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
243 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
244 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
245 build rules, please see below]
249 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
250 standard packages [2.5]
251 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
252 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
253 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
254 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
255 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
256 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
257 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
258 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
259 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
260 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
265 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
266 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
267 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
268 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
269 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
270 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
271 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
272 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
273 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
274 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
275 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
277 - X Windows related things:
278 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
280 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
281 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
282 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
283 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
284 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
285 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
286 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
287 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
292 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
293 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
294 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
296 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
297 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
303 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
304 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
305 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
306 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
307 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
313 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
314 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
319 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
320 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
325 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
326 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
331 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
332 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
333 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
334 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
335 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
336 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
337 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
338 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
344 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
345 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
346 and the other without [11.8.1]
351 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
352 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
353 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
354 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
355 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
356 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
357 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
358 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
359 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
361 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
362 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
363 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
364 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
365 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
366 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
367 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
368 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
369 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
370 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
371 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
372 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
378 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
379 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
384 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
385 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
386 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
387 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
388 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
389 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
390 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
391 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
392 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
393 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
394 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
395 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
396 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
397 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
398 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
399 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
401 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
402 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
403 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
404 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
406 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
407 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
408 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
409 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
415 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
416 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
417 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
422 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
423 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
425 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
426 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
427 - The location of the GPL has changed to
428 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
429 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
430 other major licenses [12.6]
431 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
432 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
433 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
434 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
436 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
437 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
438 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
439 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
442 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
448 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
449 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
450 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
451 Section 5 and Section 6.
452 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
453 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
454 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
455 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
456 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
458 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
459 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
460 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
461 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
462 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
463 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
464 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
465 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
466 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
467 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
468 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
474 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
475 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
476 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
477 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
479 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
480 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
481 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
484 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
485 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
486 installs shared libraries
487 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
491 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
492 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
493 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
495 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
496 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
499 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
500 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
501 file extension as the referenced file
503 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
504 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
506 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
507 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
508 start, stop, restart, force-reload
509 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
512 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
513 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
514 be installed into /etc/cron.d
516 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
517 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
518 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
519 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
522 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
523 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
526 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
527 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
528 reasonable default configuration
530 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
531 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
532 by all news servers and clients
534 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
535 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
536 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
537 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
538 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
540 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
541 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
544 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
546 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
547 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
549 * updated section about `Configuration files':
550 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
552 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
556 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
559 where <arch> is one of the following:
560 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
562 * detailed rules for /usr/local
566 * editor/pager policy
572 * don't install shared libraries as executable
574 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
576 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
578 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
583 * "Standard for Console Messages"
585 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
587 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
589 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
591 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
595 * No hard links in source packages
597 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
599 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
603 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
611 <!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file
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