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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
8 Created On Node : tiamat.datasync.com
9 Last Modified By : Manoj Srivastava
10 Last Modified On : Tue Jul 24 21:46:23 2001
11 Last Machine Used: glaurung.green-gryphon.com
13 Status : Unknown, Use with caution!
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>
58 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
60 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
61 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously
62 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
63 a ``serious'' policy violation
64 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
65 /usr/share/doc heirarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
66 the //localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
67 ask permission to expose that information during the install.
71 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
72 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
73 symlinks or .so pages to do this [13.1]
74 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
75 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
76 by scripts; see section 11.7.3 for the whole story]
77 - Included a new section 11.9.1 describing the use of
78 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
79 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
80 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
81 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
83 - X Windows related things:
84 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
86 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [12.8.3]
87 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
88 fonts for the X Window System [12.8.5]
89 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [12.8.6]
90 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
91 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [12.8.7]
92 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
93 OSF/Motif-linked ones [12.8.8]
98 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
99 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
100 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
102 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
103 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
109 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
110 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
111 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
112 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
113 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc//<package>/examples as
119 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
120 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [12.8.6]
125 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
126 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [9.1]
131 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
132 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [12.8.5]
137 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
138 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
139 /etc/default/; see [10.3.2] for details
140 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
141 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
142 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
143 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [13.3]
144 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
150 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
151 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
152 and the other without [12.8.1]
157 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
158 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
159 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [11.1]
160 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
161 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
162 should always be generated for the upstream changes [13.8]
163 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (4.x)
164 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
165 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
167 - X server (virtual package xserver) [12.8.2]
168 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [12.8.3]
169 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
170 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
171 calculation guidelines) [12.8.4]
172 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
173 - X application defaults [12.8.6]
174 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
175 has been clarified; see [12.8.7]
176 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
177 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
178 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
184 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
185 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
190 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
191 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
192 and prerm scripts. Details are in [13.4]
193 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
194 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
195 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
196 update-rc.d instead) [10.3.4]
197 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
198 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
199 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
200 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
201 incompatible way.) [10.3.3]
202 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
203 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
204 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [13.7]
205 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
207 - Added MIME sub-policy document [10.7; mime-policy]
208 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
209 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
210 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
212 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
213 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
214 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [13.8]
215 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
221 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
222 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
223 .la files must go in the run-time library package [11.2]
228 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
229 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
230 not all known. [10.1]
231 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
232 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [2.4.1]
233 - The location of the GPL has changed to
234 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
235 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
236 other major licenses [13.6]
237 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
238 include the .la files in the -dev packages [11.2]
239 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [11.8]
240 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
242 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
243 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [10.6; menu-policy]
244 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
245 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [12.3]
251 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
252 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
253 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
254 Section 5 and Section 6.
255 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
256 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
257 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
258 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
259 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
261 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
262 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
263 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
264 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
265 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
266 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
267 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
268 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
269 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
270 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
271 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
277 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
278 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
279 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
280 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
282 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
283 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
284 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
287 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
288 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
289 installs shared libraries
290 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
294 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
295 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
296 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
298 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
299 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
302 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
303 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
304 file extension as the referenced file
306 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
307 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
309 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
310 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
311 start, stop, restart, force-reload
312 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
315 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
316 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
317 be installed into /etc/cron.d
319 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
320 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
321 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
322 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
325 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
326 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
329 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
330 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
331 reasonable default configuration
333 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
334 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
335 by all news servers and clients
337 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
338 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
339 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
340 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
341 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
343 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
344 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
347 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 97
349 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
350 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
352 * updated section about `Configuration files':
353 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
355 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
359 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
362 where <arch> is one of the following:
363 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
365 * detailed rules for /usr/local
369 * editor/pager policy
375 * don't install shared libraries as executable
377 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
379 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 97
381 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
386 * "Standard for Console Messages"
388 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
390 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
392 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 96
394 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
398 * No hard links in source packages
400 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
402 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
406 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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